There's Always Hope
by The Writer of Epicas
Summary: Young Riley suddenly wakes up as a Riolu with no memory of what happened to him. He tries to find out how he got there, and how to get back, but he gets stuck into several situations. And most of them end up pointing him in the right direction. He makes new allies, and makes life long enemies. But no matter how grim his reality gets, there's always that faint glimmer of hope.
1. Chapter 1: Where am I?

The light from the sun pierced through my eyelids like a lance. The sun rose its grinning face over the mighty mountains and shone directly on me. "Five more minutes," I groaned. My eyes squinted open, a thin crack from which I could see. I was in the midst of a lush plane of amber grass, swaying in a gentle breeze. Unless I'm mistaken this is not where I fell asleep last night. I was comfortably… where was I last night? Or where was I at any point besides now? I can't remember anything.

I reached into the far corners of my mind for any sort of memory. At first I was looking for something big. The house I grew up in,the faces of my parents, old friends of mine, things like that. But as I tried to remember, I realized how little I actually knew. I didn't know my age, where I was from, what color hair I had. I couldn't find anything. Not a brief memory, not a single word. I couldn't even remember something as simple as my favorite color. I was a blank slate, clean of everything… wait, there's something… It's a name: Riley. There was no face to go with the name, and neither was there any knowledge of who that name belongs to.

A sharp pain rose up in my skull. All this thinking this early in the morning was hurting my head. I rose a paw to the side of my head in hopes to keep the pressure on it, to comfort it… wait, a paw? My arms were covered in ocean blue fur and a pink paw pad rested on the inside of the hand, and small, rounded gray stones on the back of my hands. My stomach was also coated in that same blue fur. My chest and legs had a black fur around them. I yelped a little in fear. Please let this be a dream. Let this all just be a dream and I'll wake up soon enough.

I looked around a little for something reflective. To my luck, a small puddle was a few feet away. I quickly crawled over to the puddle and looked at my face. The water was murky, filthy, but still enough so I could see myself. I only caught a quick glimpse of it until I jumped back in fear, but I couldn't forget it. My face was also covered in that ocean blue fur, with a black bandit mask designed in there. Black tear drop shaped things hung off the side of my head. There was no doubt about it. I was a Riolu. Heavy pants escaped from my jowl as tried to comprehend what just happened. This is the world of Pokemon. Either it actually exists, or this is all a dream. It's more likely that this is a dream, but this is a little too real for a dream. My usual dreams aren't this detailed, but it's far more likely than me being a pokemon.

Whether this is a dream or reality, only one thing is for sure. Laying back in the grass will just waste time. So I stood up and started examining the area around me. The grass was only as high as my chin so I was able to see for a good distance. The field went on for miles in all directions. It was cold, so I'm assuming it's morning. So the sun poking its face through the mountains has to be east, though that's useless information to me if I don't know where I am. Civilization tends to be along rivers, or any body of water really. If I can find a river, I'll have a better chance to find people. And staying here won't tell me anything. Now, water tends to flow downhill. If I were to find water, I need to walk along the mountains until I find a river… but that would exhaust energy. I'll need to find water soon, but I'll need food to be able to make it to whatever distant river lays beyond the fields. The one sure thing I know that's out there is mountains. Other than that, the whole world could be endless stretches of vast plane. For as far as I can see, that might be the case. The mountains are my only landmark. Until I know of something else, I have to follow them. Assuming I have full energy, I can last about three days without finding whatever river there is out here. If there even is one. It's possible it's on the other side of the mountains. If I don't find anything after two days, I'll have to pull off my last resort and dig for it. All this grass has to have its water come from somewhere… well, it's a theory.

I nodded, as if agreeing with my own plan, and started walking. A Riolu's body is a lot different than a normal human's. And I figured this out while stumbling through the fields. This body is smaller and lighter, and the head was big considering the body. A body like this is difficult to run in. As I awkwardly walked, I just kept thinking _I never knew chibis had it this difficult_. If I were running I probably would have fallen onto the ground by now.

About three minutes ago, the swishing of the grass in the wind was soothing. Now it's just annoying. It's almost worse than eerie silence. Nothing for miles besides these mighty mountains, and the only noise I hear is the goddam grass. It's starting to get to me… I'm just now realizing something. I have no memories, I don't know where the hell I am, from what I can tell there is no civilization within several miles, but what I'm freaking out about is the noise the wind makes. Not that I have no food or water, not that there are no people around, not that I'm suddenly a pokemon. No, it's annoying sounds. I guess I was a calm guy. Level headed, easy going. This is going to make things a lot easier.

About five minutes into my walk, I bumped into a sleeping Rattata. He jolted awake, jumped away from me, then growled. He was angry, but I was relieved. Another living being. It may be a Rattata, but it proves I'm not alone. That there is hope for there being something out there. As I sighed in relief, the Rattata kept growling. He was poised to strike me. His fangs were bared and ready to sink into my neck. "Uh, sorry," I said. His growls grew louder and fiercer. He's actually going to attack me just for waking him up. Slowly, I backed away from him. "Easy, now," I said nervously. Even though it's just a Rattata, I don't think I've ever been in a fight before. To make matters worse, I clumsily stepped on another Rattata's tail. The second one yelped, and I knew I screwed up. He growled and joined the other Rattata with his fangs also bared. "It was an accident," I said. What's wrong with these pokemon? All I did was wake them up and they look like they're gonna kill me.

The two growls grew into a chorus of ferocity as other pokemon rose up from the grass. A flock of Spearow gathered around. Nidorans of both genders, even some Nidorinos and Nidorinas, Zigzagoons, Pidgeys, Sentrets, dozens of pokemon gathered around. Their collective snarls only made me more and more scared. "I'm just gonna go," I said, still slowly backing away. They started advancing towards me. There were too many to fight. Running seems cowardly, but it's my only option, and my best option too. I pivited around and started running. The pack roared and sprinted after me. I was right, running in this body is awkward and clumsy. The only thing that kept me from falling on the soft ground was knowing that it could be the death of me. My pants were frantic and heavy as they were breathing down my neck. Spearows dived at me, their sharp beaks whizzing by my head. I covered my head with my arms and ran. _What the hell is wrong with these pokemon?_ I thought. _What did I do to piss them off?_

Meanwhile, two pokemon were approaching a Mystery Dungeon. One was a dignified Roselia, her eyes scanning the dungeon ahead of her. The other was a Charmander checking the map ahead of him. "This is the right place, right?" Roselia said. All she saw was a vast expanse of plane.

"I… I think so," Charmander replied, scratching his head. "No one has ever been here before, so it's not marked anywhere on the map."

"Strange that no one has found this endless dungeon," Roselia said. "So, before we go exploring, I think it's only fair if we give this place a name."

"Assuming this is the right place," Charmander muttered. He tucked the map into his bag and looked around. "Now, for a name… how about Infinity Field?"

"Maybe, maybe," Roselia said. She stood there for a moment longer at the edge of the planes and listened to the grass swaying in the wind. "How about… Whispering Prairie?" Charmander took a second to hear the same noise his partner was hearing.

"Yeah, that works," he said. "Now that the name's out of the way, let's explore." He cracked his neck and started walking forward. Roselia stuck an arm out in front of him.

"Wait," she said. She closed her eyes and listened. "Do you hear that?" A harmony of snarls and growls reached her ears. Again she scanned through the grass. In the distance she saw a flock of Spearow pecking at a pokemon. The flock was moving, so she assumed the pokemon was as well. "Come on, let's go," she said, running into the field

"R-right," Charmander replied, following her. His strides were like he was waddling due to his short legs, but he managed to keep up somehow.

The Spearow were fiercely pecking at me. My head was covered in small cuts, matting down my fur with blood. I was surrounded, incapable of moving anywhere. While the Rattata and Sentrets and the Nidorans scratched and bit at me, I was curled up in a ball to prevent serious injury. With each attack I felt a wave of pain as large gashes were made in my arms and legs. One does not feel pain in dreams. This is real. And I'm about to be killed by a swarm of pokemon.

As I was embracing death, I heard an odd sound. I honestly don't know what to compare it too. Soon after the sound, some of the Spearow fell onto the ground. The other pokemon stopped attacking me and looked towards a Roselia pointing her red rose hand at them. "I don't suppose telling you to stop would actually make you stop," she said. A few of the pokemon growled and pounced towards her. "As I thought." From her hands came a flurry of colorful leaves. They flew in all directions until they approached their targets, then they homed in on the Spearow. The leaves jabbed into the birds, severely injuring them. Most of them had their wings cut so they couldn't fly that well. The other pokemon released a fierce howl and pounced for them. And that's when Charmander jumped between them. A blue flame built up in the back of his throat. The Fire-Type arched his neck and spat a Dragon Rage at the pokemon. They all were knocked out by a large cloud of fire. "I didn't need your help," she said.

"Yeah, but a gang vs one isn't a fair match," Charmander said. "This way we'll double our odds."

"Logically, it's impossible to go more than 100%," Roselia scoffed.

"Whatever," said Charmander. The Nidorans realized they stood no chance and fled, rustling in the grass as they went. I uncurled myself and stood up, shaking and looking around. "You alright?" he asked.

"Uh, I-I guess," I said, inspecting for more serious injuries. There were several cuts from the Spearows and a few deep cuts from the Rattatas and Sentrets, but nothing too bad.

"You sure?" said Roserade. "Because you look like you need medical attention."

"Y-yeah," I said. "So what the hell was that?"

"You're kidding, right?" Roserade said. I shook my head. "Well, they're wild pokemon. The Mystery Dungeons have an effect on them for some reason."

"Mystery Dungeons?" I questioned.

"Arceus, what's wrong with you?" Roselia asked. "First of all you'd have to be living under a rock to be able to not hear of Mystery Dungeons. And you're in one. They're filled with hostile pokemon who try to kill visitors."

"Then why do people even come here?"

"Well, places like this can have good items and money here inexplicably," Charmander said. "You don't know anything about Mystery Dungeons yet you're right in the middle of one. So why are you here?"

"Well, to be honest I just woke up here," I said. "I don't remember anything before about fifteen minutes ago."

"You sure that isn't the severe blood loss?" Charmander asked.

"Probably not," I said.

"So, you have nowhere to go?" Roselia asked. I nodded. "Then let's take you back into town. All we came here to do was confirm the existance of this place. Exploring it was just something we thought about doing as an afterthought."

"Well, that sounds better than endlessly wandering these fields," I said.

"Good. Because these fields go on forever." Charmander stuck out a hand-or, claw, I guess. "Pokemon call me Pyro," he said. "Do you remember your name?"

"Well, I remember _a_ name," I said. "Riley."

"Pokemon call me Rose," said Roselia. "I would also shake your hand, but, well, my hands are covered in thorns."

"Look, I'm happy you guys stumbled upon me and everything, but can we just leave this place?" I asked. "I'd prefer not to stay here any longer."

"Oh, sure," said Pyro. "It'll be a long walk back into town, though."

"Better than staying here," I said. Pyro started walking away, Rose just behind him. I hurriedly walked behind them, glad to leave the Whispering Prairie behind.

* * *

Well, I don't think that this was entirely bad. I changed plans half way through writing it, so you may notice a difference. But tell me what you guys think. A follow or Favorite is nice, but I'd just like a review from you. Let me know how I did on the story so far, any sort of suggestion. Some of you are more experienced authors than I.


	2. Chapter 2: The Guild

It was a long several hours of painful walking through forests and fields, rolling hills and countryside. During the long walk they briefed me on most of the things in this world. How pokemon evolve, what certain items are, things of that nature. But there was one thing they refused to to tell me: where we're going. They just kept saying 'into town' without telling me any more than that. The first non-hostile pokemon I meet and they're keeping me in the dark. But those several hours are over now. We stand on top of the hill and overlooked the town. It was a lively place, peaceful place. In the middle of it all was a town square, and that's where most of the pokemon were. And on the far end of town was a large wooden structure, shaped and colored like a Gallade. "What's that?" I asked.

"Where we're heading," said Rose.

"Yeah, but what is it?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"The way you say that makes me think that I'm gonna be killed," I muttered.

"Don't be stupid. If we were going to kill you, we would have let the Spearow do that for us," Rose laughed. _Creepy_, I thought.

The town was even more lively from within. Groups of other pokemon were talking amongst each other. Some were simply discussing things about their lives, most of which was personal and I felt bad for listening in on it. Others were planning explorations of Mystery Dungeons, gathering items for their quests. A few of them gave brief greetings to Rose and Pyro as we passed them by. They certainly seem to be popular.

Another thing noticeable about this town was the shops. They were all colorful and decorative. Pokemon heads were designed from wood. They seemed rather excessive, but they certainly catch attention to their business. It seemed like a carnival or something. String up some old paper lanterns lined up across the stands, put people-well, pokemon in this case-in kimonos, and change the time to night and the image would be perfect. Picturing that image made me feel… welcome, at home, nostalgic. I could even hear a brief frame of music. It was only four notes played on an odd instrument, but it was something. More than I remembered about six hours ago. I was almost disappointed when I realized I was back here. Away from that brief, warm memory and back to this new, confusing world. The only reason I'm here is because wherever Rose and Pyro are going seems better than the field I woke up in.

Of course, the two lead me to the giant Gallade head on the edge of town. It stood on the cliff, looking vigilantly onto the city. One of its eyes was closed with a red line through it like a scar. It looked incredibly realistic except for its mouth, which was a great iron door. What's the point of this place?

Pyro knocked on the door a few times, then waited. The three of us stood silent for a little while until the doors suddenly shifted open with a rusty creek. "Someone really needs to clean these things," said Rose.

"Yeah, but are you willing to go through the effort? It's a pain to remove rust," said Pyro. When the doors finished moving, I took a good look at the room. It was about the size of a small room, and almost entirely barren. The walls were just wooden planks, unpainted unlike the outside. There were four things in the room: a pit, a ladder in the pit, and two torches beside the pit. Pyro and Rose walked into the room and climbed down the ladder. For a brief second I thought about going into town. They already brought me to safety. This place doesn't exactly seem like a peaceful place… but if I want to get home, this place seems like it would be the most help. I don't think that a Kecleon shop would be able to bring me home. So, I climbed down the ladder behind them.

The second floor had a few dozen pokemon conversing with each other, illuminated by a roaring fire in the center of the room and a few torches on the walls. Most of them were talking about how well they did on their adventures. Rose and Pyro were talking to three other pokemon: a Kirlia, a Luxio and a Buizel. "So, how did your job work out?" asked Kirlia.

"Success," Rose said. "Whispering Prairie will be on the official Mystery Dungeon list by tomorrow morning."

"What was it like?" Buizel asked.

"Well, it's just as the name suggests. A lot of prairie, and a lot of wind," said Pyro. "The pokemon there were pretty low level."

"How deep does it go?" Buizel asked.

"Uh, I don't know," said Pyro. "To be honest, we left before we could explore it."

"What? Why?" asked Luxio.

"Well, you see him?" said Rose, pointing her red rose hand to me. "He found the place before us. He was lost, so we brought him here." Well… that's close enough to the truth. Maybe she just said that so they didn't ask anything.

"He looks like he can't even fight a Rattata," Kirlia said.

"Actually, he can't. But he can take a hell of a beating," Rose said. She gestured to the remains of the blood in my fur. I washed most of it out at a river we crossed, but I guess a little bit remained. "If we found him a minute later, he would have been food for about twenty Spearow."

"You almost seem proud that you stumbled upon him," Luxio said.

"Is that why you brought him here?" asked Kirlia. "Just because he didn't die?"

"Well, sorta," said Rose. In that moment I saw a bittersweet look in her eyes. It held sadness mixed with a little bit of relief. The look was only there for an instant so I couldn't examine it any further, but that frame was enough to tell there was something she wasn't saying. "I brought him here because he had nowhere to go."

"So you brought him to a _guild_ of all places?" Luxio said.

"Yeah," said Pyro. "For one reason or another, she thought this would be the best place for him."

"What's so wrong with me being here?" I asked.

"Well, you're inexperienced for one," said Kirlia.

"Weren't we all inexperienced when we started?" Pyro said with a smile.

"...Touche," said Kirlia. "Come on, let's take him to the Guildmaster." With that, Rose, Pyro and Kirlia climbed down a second ladder I didn't notice until right now. I followed. The third floor had natural light coming in through a window. I was surprised that this place was close enough to the edge of a cliff to make a window. It gave an amazing view for quite a ways out. It seemed that this cliff dropped off into a vast expansive meadow of soft greens, and the meadow was tightly bordered by a lush forest. Then, a few miles away, the trees started to be capped with pure white snow. At the end of my sight, one mountain stood there, proud, mighty, and terrifying, like a sword stabbing at frozen skies. Only I couldn't see the top through the clouds. For all I know, God's vacation cabin could be on top. Something about it made me want to explore it, to venture to its top.

Kirlia could see me marveling at the mountain. "Don't even think about it," he said. "Only the best of the best have even thought about going there. Only two people have ever even made it there. And neither could make it past the first floor."

"Wow," I said, astonished. That just makes me want to explore it even more. "What is that place even called?"

"Well, the path to the mountain is called the Dream Crusher, and for good reasons," he said. "But the mountain itself is called the Mountain of Myths because of all the myths moving around about what's at the top."

"Amazing," I said. I would kill to venture to the top… what am I saying? I just need to go home. I just need to find a way back to the human world… and leave this legend behind. A shame.

The three stood before a wooden door, well designed with engravings and carvings of swords and shields and odd symbols. Kirlia pushed open the door to reveal yet another room, though this one was much smaller. There was a mahogany desk with several pieces of paper scattered across it, and behind this desk was another window with the same view as the other one. Though I could only see his back, it was clear that a Gallade sat behind the desk and gazed out the window. He was aware of our presence but chose not to acknowledge us.

"Do you need something?" he asked.

"Guildmaster, sir, I have a new recruit," said Rose. "I found him in Whispering Prairie."

"Wait, I never-"

"Really?" Gallade said. He turned his head slightly so that he could set an eye on me. He inspected me. His eye went over the remaining patches of blood, visible cuts, and overall expression. Mine was a mixture of confusion and fear, with a hint of determination thrown in there. "He's not terrible," he said. A faint smile rose upon Pyro's, Rose's and Kirlia's faces. "If he wishes to, he can join the guild." He turned around completely to reveal a large scar over his right eye. I wasn't too surprised after I saw the entrance to the guild, but it made me wonder how it happened. I heard that every scar holds a story. This is one I'd like to hear. "You see this?" he said.

"Y-yeah," I said. I wasn't expecting him to talk about it. Maybe it would have been a tragic past that would have pained him for all his life. A scar on both his body and his soul that will never heal, so he just ignored it all together. He's surprisingly accepting of it. He's almost showing it off, like a trophy.

"I was lucky," he said. "If my reflexes weren't honed as they were, I would be dead. If you're going to join the guild, you just need to know that you can be seriously hurt, and possibly dead. But I'm pretty sure you know that." He gestured to all my tufts of bloodied fur. "You'll risk your life over and over just to see the grateful faces of pokemon you save. You'll be forced to go into more Mystery Dungeons and fight other pokemon. Maybe even kill them." I started to feel a little hesitant now. "If you're going to join the guild, you'll have to learn to deal with. Is this something you can undergo?"

This question made me think. What do I want? If I want to get home, I'll need to explore for the reason why. And to explore, I'll need to get stronger. A guild sounds like a good place to train… but it's risky. Going into dungeons will mean possibly dying. But it's better than waiting around for the reason why to come to me.

"To be honest," I said, "I'm not sure if that's something I can do." A disappointed look came upon Gallade's face. "I mean, I can die doing this. Helping people is the right thing to do, and adventuring sounds like lots of fun… but I don't wanna die."

"That's a shame," said Gallade. "A Riolu can be very powerful if trained right."

"You didn't let me finish," I said. Gallade raised an eye in curiosity. "I'm not sure if I can do this… but I will at any cost." Gallade grew a proud smile. Rose, Pyro and Kirlia shared the same smile.

"Rose, you had a good find out there," Gallade said. He reached behind his desk and pulled out a small leather bag. "Here," he said. He threw the bag at me. It was mostly empty besides for a few things. There was a map, a small badge with some wings on it for decorative purposes, and… a scarf? It was a deep crimson and made of cotton. Feeling it in my hands make me feel… stronger, wiser, more instinctive. I could feel something coming off from the scarf. My eyes were fixated on it. It looked like just an ordinary piece of clothing but there was undoubtable something odd about the scarf.

"What is this?" I asked, slightly bewildered.

"It's called a Scarlet Scarf," Gallade said. "There are many items like these that give you helpful boosts." I looked over to Rose, Pyro and Kirlia. Rose had a yellow bandana tied around her neck, Pyro had an ordinary brown one and Kirlia had silver cuffs around his wrists that matched Gallade's. "A Scarlet Scarf boosts all your stats. The more pokemon you defeat, the greater the boost will be," he said.

"But dad, why does _he_ get the Scarlet Scarf?" Kirlia complained. He almost whined a little like a child.

"I know what I'm doing," Gallade said.

"He's inexperienced, he himself even said he was weak. I don't think he'll be able to bank up all the strength he'll need."

"Kirlia, I know what I'm doing," said Gallade strictly. His one good eye glared at his son and Kirlia backed down.

"Sorry," Kirlia reluctantly said.

"It's fine if you ask questions," Gallade said. "But the man you're calling inadequate is right there."

He seemed pained to look at me. "Sorry, Riley," Kirlia forced.

"I-it's fine," I said uncomfortably. "Like you said, I was just saying that I was weak." I looked at the scarf curiously. I can see that this is a good scarf with great potential, but why is Kirlia so upset about this?

"Make sure to keep the Scarlet Scarf in good condition," Gallade said with a nostalgic tone. "Those are extremely rare, and it means a lot to me."

"Then why are you giving it to me?" I asked. "To a rookie who hasn't even had his first fight?"

"I have my reasons," Gallade said.

"Alright," I said, wrapping the scarf around my neck. "One last question. Why don't people wear a lot of items and become nearly invincible?" Gallade opened his mouth to speak, then promptly closed it as he realized he didn't know. The idea never came to anyone before. You could say that wearing all of them would be sorta heavy and take up a lot of space, but then I would say that they would be just like a shirt if you sew them together.

"Starting tomorrow, you'll go out on missions and everything. Rose, Pyro, you two show him around," Gallade said.

"Yessir," said Rose and Pyro in unison. Rose gestured for me to follow, so I did. I didn't notice how late it was until right now. The sky was a gleaming orange, and the clouds were wisps of purple contrasting with the sunset. Something about this hour of day felt familiar and beautiful as I basked in the golden evening light.

Rose lead me to a hallway with several small rooms in. All these rooms had piles of hay and a window, and that was it. Some pokemon were sitting on the piles of hay. _Jesus, are these the beds?_ I thought. Seeing pokemon splayed out on the piles of hay made me more and more reluctant to stay. It looked so scratchy and uncomfortable. It's too late to turn back now. I'm already signed up.

At the end of the hall on the right, Rose took a turn into their room. Either there was a third pile of hay that has been there this whole time in case of a new recruit, or someone put a third pile of hay down in the roughly thirty seconds it took to get here, then faded into the darkness so as not to be seen. I find both situations odd. Pyro's bed was closest to the window, and Rose's was next to the wall. The empty one I claimed as mine and curled up on it. Surprisingly, the hay was plush and soft… well, softer than I expected it to be. I can get used to this.

"So, Riley," said Pyro. "You ready for what comes tomorrow?"

"Depends," I said. "What _does_ come tomorrow?"

"Well, you'll have your first mission and everything," Rose said. "You're gonna learn to fight, you're gonna explore…"

"Sounds fun," I said. Risky, but fun.

"Trust me, it is," Pyro said.

"Well, I'm gonna hit the hay," I said (I swear, that didn't start out as a joke when I wrote it). "Night."

"Night," they both said. As I slowly drifted into sleep, I kept thinking about how to get home. I was lucky to find two strong pokemon who are kind enough to help me. I feel bad that I'm using them like this, for using them to get home. Hell, they'd probably help me anyways if I asked them to, but… well, I'm in the pokemon world. This probably wouldn't happen again. I should take my time to enjoy it. And I don't even know how to return… I decided to just let everyone believe I'm a pokemon for now. It's better this way. And so I fell asleep, awaiting the next morning.

* * *

Until about September, I won't be able to type anything. The last part of the chapter was a little rushed so I'd be able to get this in for you guys. So, tell me what you think about the story so far. A follow or favorite would be nice, but I especially want a review from you people. Tell me what you think of the story so far, or any suggestions as to the story so far.

And also, someone answer me as to why they don't just wear a bunch of those items at once.


	3. Chapter 3: A Common Secret

I found a way to access a laptop, so lucky you, I was able to get the next chapter in

* * *

When the day started and the morning sky revealed itself in the window, I was groggy and exhausted. I must have not been a morning person. "Wake up," Pyro said. I groaned. "Oi, wake up," he repeated, gently shaking me. I just groaned even louder. Pyro sighed. My eyes were closed so I couldn't see what was going on, but I felt a sudden warmth on my face and saw a glow beyond my eyelids. The warmth was getting hotter and hotter and more irritable. When I slowly opened my eyes, Pyro's tail was right in front of my face, almost singeing my fur. I jumped back with a small yelp. "Good, you're awake," he said. "Hurry up, you have about a minute and a half before you have to be in the main room."

"Got it," I said tiredly.

"Don't ruin your first impression with the guild," Rose said. "I remember the last guy in the guild that the guildmaster didn't like. He was thrown out. Literally."

"Goddam," I said. "I'll make sure not to ruin it then." While I have a little bit of time, there's something that had been bugging me for a while. "But I have a quick, random question for you two." Slowly I was starting to wake up.

"Ask away," said Pyro.

"Why are you two the only ones with nicknames?" I yawned. "I mean, everyone else goes by the name of their species."

"Well, I have my own reasons," said Rose. That same look I saw from yesterday appeared in her eyes again. The bittersweet, remonicant look.

"I just don't like being called by the name of my species," Pyro said. "Imagine if you lived in a family where everyone shares the same name."

"So, you're the only ones who do that?" I asked.

"You included," said Rose.

"Well… touche," I said.

"30 second warning!" a Rhyperior boomed down the hall.

"Shit," Rose muttered. Pyro grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. "Come on, let's go." Luckily the hall was short, so we were able to get to the main room before time was up. There must have been fifty pokemon here total, and they all stood at attention. Gallade was in front of his door, returning the attention to his disciples. Rhyperior stood next to him. Rose and Pyro joined the others in stance. Gallade seemed like he was raising an army of pokemon soldiers. In essence, I guess he is…

"Three, two, one, zero," Rhyperior counted. Everyone but me was saluting Gallade. "The new recruit apparently can't pick up on social cues," he said. He pointed a hand at me, with the hole in the palm of his hand looking menacing, as if I was looking down the barrel of a gun. The crowd of pokemon's expressions turned to ones of worry, and some of amusement, but they all stared forward. I would later learn they were to not break eye contact with the guildmaster. And the fact that no one was looking at me while Rhyperior pointed that arm at me made it seem even more menacing. Then, in a single instant, the muscles in his arm opened up to let in a large surge of air. With a grunt, his muscles expanded and sent a shot of air into me. Before I could react I was sent crashing into the wall. The wind was knocked out of me and I kept gasping for air. My body was limp from just that one attack. _Jesus, this guy's insane_, I thought. _For not saluting, I was almost killed_.

"A hell of a way to wake someone up," I groaned, clutching the spot on my chest where I was hit.

"Every morning, you must salute your guildmaster," Rhyperior said. "It exercises your loyalty and discipline."

"And your ability to survive the force of a bullet," I muttered, wiping the dirt off my fur. Rhyperior pointed his arm at me again, and I snapped into a salute with everyone else.

"Rose, you found a smart ass to join the guild," Rhyperior spat.

"Sir, for the record this is the first time he's acted like this," Rose said.

"Stop, all of you," Gallade ordered. "You're wasting everyone's time." He cleared his throat and went to addressing everyone else. "As you may have noticed, we have a new recruit," he said, pointing to me. I just awkwardly waved to everyone. _Great. Rose only asked me to do one thing this morning. 'Don't ruin your first impression with the guild'. And I couldn't even do that,_ I thought. "Soon enough, he'll be a great member of the guild. For now, he's still learning the ropes." His next words were directed at me, "We prefer to teach through force. It's cruel, uncalled for, but effective. I was taught the same way, and I'm proof of its effectiveness." He went back to addressing everyone else. "Now, today is an ordinary day. Do your jobs and be back by dinner."

Everyone but me answered with a thundering "Yes sir!" and went to business.

"So," I said, walking up to my friends. "Where exactly is the part of the day I'm supposed to be looking for that you promised?"

"Just about now," said Pyro.

"I'll be with you guys soon," said Rose, walking towards the ladder. "I need to get some stuff in town. I'll meet you at the watering hole in about half an hour."

"As usual, I'm gonna have to wait a good fifteen minutes for you," he sighed. He climbed up the ladder behind her, and I followed behind him. The flame on his tail waved past my face, reminding me of the unpleasant way I was woken up. I shall have vengeance one of these days.

I didn't take a good look at the second floor the first time I was here, so I decided to take in everything at once. There was a single window overlooking the Mountain of Myths-_oh God, I will do anything to go there one day… why am I so obsessed with that mountain?_-and three boards on the walls. One was outlined in green, a second was outlined in red and the final one in black. Charmander stood by the green one.

"This is the job request board," he said.

"Then what are the other two?" I asked.

Charmander smiled, as if he was expecting me to ask. "The red one is for criminals with bounties on their head. We'll take you on one of those later," he said.

"Wait, 'we'? We're on the same Exploration Team?" I asked.

"I thought it was obvious," he said. "Yeah, you're a part of Team Hell Raisers for the time being."

"Well… thanks," I said. "But what about the black board?"

"Those are… I guess I'd call them challenges," he said. "Hundreds-in some case, thousands-of years ago, these were job requests. Back then, Mystery Dungeons were unknown places. That's half the reason they're called Mystery Dungeons. The other half of the reason is how they change shape each time you visit. Anyways, after hundreds or thousands of years, the people who made the requests have died. These missions have become like trophies for exploration teams. The last one beaten was by our own guildmaster about five or six years ago."

"Damn," I muttered. "I can't believe that there are places that no one has been able to explore within a thousand years…" I looked out the window and over to the mountain again. The clouds blocking the summit from view, the snow getting more and more intense as altitude increased, the thought of all the treasures that wait there for the first one strong enough to get there… I walked over to the black board and looked through the missions. There were many of them written on old, tanned paper from centuries ago. There were about eight or nine total, but only one stood out to me. It was labeled 'Move the Mountain of Myths!' and had a short and to-the-point description: 'In the northern half of the eastern continent, there's a mountain that no one has ever been to. The top is always surrounded by clouds, so no one has ever seen the top. And I want someone to bring me whatever's hidden at the summit.' The reward back then was 100,000 poke. Someone obviously wanted that dungeon to be explored. With a smile, I plucked the mission off the board. Then I folded it up and put it between the scarf.

"Uh, your first mission should probably be something a little easy," Pyro said.

"This won't be my first," I said. "I'm holding it for later. I know I'm not strong enough just yet… but some day I will be."

"You and everyone else who set eyes on that mountain," Pyro muttered. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me over to the green board. "These are the jobs you should take," he said. He sorted through several papers to find a good one for me. "A little too hard… Even a rookie like you would breeze through here… _I_ wouldn't even consider this place… ah, perfect." He picked a request out of the stack and gave it to me. It read the following:

"My name is Kabuto. About 3 days ago my dad, Kabutops, left for Eisen Cavern. He hasn't returned yet and I'm starting to get worried. Knowing him he would be somewhere near the end of the dungeon. Please explorer, my brother and I are worried sick about him. Please bring him home."

Below that was the information about the mission. It offered a Reviver Seed, an Orange Gummi and… 5,000 poke. "They're really offering 5,000 poke for this?!" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah. These jobs give a lot of money. But the guild takes a 90% tax on all the money rewards. So, we're gonna get only 500 poke at the end of this," said Pyro.

"Oh," I said, disappointed.

"Tell me about it," he said. "So, how do you feel about this job?"

"Sounds good," I answered. Not the most exciting like the one I placed between my scarf, but it's a good first mission.

"Good, because it isn't debatable," he said. "Now, follow me."

"More following," I sighed.

"Would you rather stumble around, lost and confused?" he asked.

"Well, maybe a little bit," I said. "That way I can explore a little. Look at the shops and everything."

"I can let you do that later," he said.

"We have twenty minutes or so while we wait."

"You'll get your chance soon enough," he said.

"I better," I pouted. Pyro sighed and climbed the ladder. I followed him… _I've been doing a lot of following lately_, I thought. _I get why, I just got here and I barely know the layout of this place, but still. I feel kinda on rails here, just being pulled along by a string_.

As I walked outside the guild, I took another good look at the Gallade head. The red line across the right eye obviously was put there to resemble his scar, but it looked as if it was designed there in the first place. So that tells me that the guild was formed after he got the scar… I don't know why but it fascinates me. I want-no, I _need_ to hear the story behind it. And beside the Gallade head were two wooden statues. One was of a Rhyperior pointing his hand out, like he did about five minutes ago this morning. The other was of a Skarmory, wings outstretched and beak opened wide. Even though it was carved in wood it was intimidating. I was half expecting it to roar and hunt me down. I would later learn that Gallade made these himself from his own two blade arms, and had his good friend Smeargle paint them.

"Pretty, ain't they?" I heard a voice say. I turned my eyes to the guild head. In Gallade's good eye a Murkrow stood inside, perched. "Hey," he said.

"Uh, hi," I replied.

"Your introduction this morning was a riot," he said with a chuckle. "I've been here for 'bout five years, and I've only seen Rhyperior do that three times. One to my friend, Misdreavus-"

"Hurt like a bitch," said a voice from below, who I assumed to be Misdreavus.

"Another to Bidoof, poor guy. And the third time was to you. And you're the only one who still stood afterwards. You're one of the more interesting guild members here," Murkrow said.

"But what are you doing there?" I asked.

"Well, I'm the guild's sentry," he said. "Another guild out there has a Diglet who hides in a hole, and identifies pokemon by their footprints through a grate. Honestly I don't know how it's even possible. The rest of the body would block all of the light. They would just see the shape of their body. How the hell does that work? It would be easier and actually effective if they just do it the way we do. Hell, they can have someone wait behind the gate and save a lot of time."

"Their idea makes no sense if you think about it," Pyro said. "I mean, identifying by footprint?"

"I know. And the guild is ran by an oddball Wigglytuff. He's certainly strong, but… well, every day he doesn't snap and kill his whole guild is a miracle," Misdreavus said. "Honestly, I think he'd go in a mental institution if there were any way of holding him there… maybe they could just throw a bunch of Perfect Apples and he'd stay there." Murkrow chuckled.

"Well, we gotta get going," Pyro said. "See you at dinner time."

"Alright, see ya' then. Make sure to teach the rookie how things work. It'd be a shame if an interesting guy like him quits like Bidoof did."

"Actually, I heard he joined Wigglytuff's guild," said Misdreavus.

"Really? I thought he'd be done with guilds altogether," said Murkrow.

"Just saying what I heard."

Pyro started walking away with a smile on his face. "They're nice people," he said. "Being part of the sentry, they tend to hear a lot of rumors and information. Talk to them for a few minutes and you're bound to hear new stuff."

"Interesting," I said. "On the other hand, that means that you gotta be careful with your secrets."

"Believe me, a lot of the people here know that," Pyro snickered. A second or so passed of silence. "Now, when you go out on your exploration you'll be leading," he explained. "We'll just follow you. We'll only intervene if you ask for it."

Interesting. They'll be there only to test my limit. How far I can explore, how well I can fight, how long I can keep this all up for, and most importantly my will to not give up. I clenched my fist tightly. "Sounds like a challenge," I said.

"The first of many," he replied

A few minutes later we walked to a crossroad. Near the crossroad was a well that Pyro went to lean against. "This is the watering hole," he said. "You're gonna see this place a lot. The northern road, where we just came from, leads to the guild. The west leads to the town, the southern one is a long route to another town, mostly it's used as a trade route, and the eastern one is where people go to get to Mystery Dungeons."

"Good to know," I said.

About half an hour of small talk passed. I kept mentioning that I could have been walking around town this whole time, but he wouldn't have it. He kept saying that Rose would be here any minute. About ten times or so as a rough estimate. When I asked him for tips about what to do in a dungeon, he simply said 'an explorer finds his technique by practice. How I do things doesn't necessarily work for how everyone.' Then I realized something else. They were testing if I would be compatible with their style. Very interesting. They're smarter than I thought they would be.

"Damn it, where is she?" Pyro spat. "She was supposed to be here half an hour ago." He took a deep breath. "Alright, you wanna explore?" He reached into his bag and gave me a 500 poke. "Go into town and find Rose."

"Finally," I exclaimed. I ran down the dirt road, leaving a trail of dust behind me as I went. I still love this town and the way it's designed. I know I already mentioned this, but I can't describe it any other way. It's filled with childlike wonder, designed with wooden pokemon heads. A variety of shops lined the streets, and each one was ran by a pokemon with lots of intensity, shouting for customers to come to their shops. Again, if they added a string of paper lanterns it would be a carnival.

In the town square, I stopped by the Kecleon market. It seemed like a popular place amongst explorers. The Kecleon brothers were cheery and happy, and displayed many items to passing pokemon. Rose said she was going to get some stuff. Maybe she stopped here. "Excuse me," I said to the green one.

"How may I help you?" he asked in a lively tone.

"Have you seen a Roselia come by here? She goes by the name Rose," I explained.

"Yeah, she stopped by here about an hour ago. She got a few apples and seeds and then headed that way," said the purple one. "But she never goes for my orbs and TMs," he sulked. "People almost never go for my wares."

"Well, I would, but I only have 500 poke," I said. "It's a shame, too. A lot of the stuff you have looks really cool."

The purple one cracked a pleased smile. "I'll tell you what," he said, fumbling behind his desk. He pulled out a small shiny disk. "I'll give you a 90% discount. For 500 poke, I'll give you TM Brick Break, as long as we become your exclusive shop."

"Brother, are you sure?" the green one asked.

"Not entirely," the purple one answered. "But I see potential in him. Consider it an investment." He turned back to me. "Kid, I'd take the deal before I change my mind."

"Th-thanks," I said, taking the TM. Then I handed the money over to him.

"What's your name?" the purple one asked.

"Riley," I said.

"I'll remember that," he said. "If you become a famous explorer, make sure to recommend people to our shop."

"Will do," I said with a smile. All the pokemon I met-besides the wild pokemon in Whispering Prairie-are so kind here. Then I headed in the way he pointed that Rose went. I asked around a lot to see where specifically where she went, and I was lead to a library. _Why the hell is she in a library?_ I thought. The library was lit by illuminating crystals. I guess I can understand that torches would be a big risk for a place full of books. I just didn't know that crystals like this even existed. In the front there was an Alakazam behind the desk. He had a few books levitating in front of him, and he seemed enthralled with all of them.

"Excuse me," I muttered.

"Hm?" he replied, not looking away from his books.

"Is Rose here?" I asked. He pointed a hand towards the back. Between the bookshelves I saw Rose with her face in a book. I can't believe she's just here reading, wasting our time. I rushed over to her with a scowl on my face. This better be a good book if we're waiting her to finish reading. I took a good look at the title: _Humans and Pokemon: an Ancient Connection_. I stood still. _Does she know I was a human? Maybe it's a coincidence and she's just reading for the hell of it. No, considering my luck, it can't be something that convenient. But I can hope_. Slowly, I walked up to her.

"You were supposed to meet us about half an hour ago," I said. She jumped from her seat, which was unlike her usual dignified self.

"Oh, s-sorry," she said. "I-I lost track of time." She closed the book and placed it on the table, hiding the side with the title.

"Yeah, humans are an interesting topic," I said.

"Busted," she sighed.

"So, why are you reading about humans?" I asked.

"I have my reasons," she said. I was hesitant about my next move. Whether it fails or succeeds, I'm gonna have to admit I'm a human.

"Is it because you're a human?" I whispered. Rose tilted her head.

"How…?" she mumbled. "The only way you could know is if… Riley, you're a human too?" I felt relieved for a moment. I'm not alone in this situation. I'm not the only human here. I almost wanted to hug her.

"Uh, yeah," I said hesitantly.

"How did I not see it earlier?" she said with a small laugh. "You woke up in a field with no memories, lost and confused. About a year earlier, that was me."

"So, what did you find out from the books?" I asked.

"Nothing really," she sighed. "A lot of the books are theories. But these theories are better than nothing."

"Damn," I muttered. "Well, let's go back to Pyro. He's been waiting patiently."

"Yeah, sorry," she said. She placed the book back in the shelf and walked out. As I followed, Alakazam tapped me on the shoulder.

"Just so you know, I can hear very well," he said. Instantly I was flooded with a mixture of fear and anxiety, a feeling I can only call _Oh Shit_. "Your secret is safe with me, but be careful saying that aloud."

"Th-thanks," I said. Suddenly I was on edge.

As Rose and I walked outside and towards the watering hole, I decided to ask a few questions. "So, how did you meet Pyro?" I asked.

"Well," she said with a sigh, "I woke up in the mountains as a Budew. And I was confused as all hell. A Budew has a weird body to run in, so I was very vulnerable. But then I bumped into a Charmander who was outcasted by his family. He never told me why, he just told me he was banished. So he helped me get to town and we became good friends. Did you know that Budew evolves through friendship? After about two months I became a Roselia. A guild has good access to information, so I convinced Pyro to make a team with me. And so, we ended up like this. I don't know why, but he refuses to evolve like I did… but, yeah. That's about it."

"So, how long ago did you get here?" I asked. That was the one question I wanted the answer to.

"A year and a half, give or take a month," she said. "The days kinda blur together."

"So, odds are that I'm not going home any time soon," I sulked.

"Actually, now we have two minds working on this," she said with an upbeat tone. "So, the odds are greater, but not definate."

"Can we work on this later?" I asked. "As much as I want to go home, I think I should enjoy being a pokemon for the time being."

Rose smiled again. "That's how I started thinking about three months into it," she said. "Sure, let's go." She started running towards the watering hole. I, of course, followed.

"Where the hell were you?!" Pyro seethed. Smoke came out of his nostrils.

"She was negotiating this for me," I said, pulling out the TM Brick Break. "Thanks," I said to her.

"Uh, y-you're welcome," she said.

"Whatever," he said. "Let's just go." He angrily started walking towards the dungeon.

"Thanks for covering for me," Rose whispered.

"You can make it up for me by teaching me how to use these things," I replied.

The game has changed. At first, I was alone trying to find my way back home. Now I have help on this quest. I have someone who has researched for a year on the connection of humans and pokemon. Theories or not, it's more than I have. But as I said I want to enjoy this time as a pokemon. I want to enjoy my time at the guild. And, most of all, I want to reach the top of the Mountain of Myths. But for now, I have a Kabutops to rescue. Eisen Cavern is my first stop along the way.

* * *

A little bit of a twist. The whole reason I made another human turn into a pokemon is because the games don't do it. Well, Gates to Infinity had other humans that turned into pokemon, but they weren't really characters. They were just plot devices, and warning the character that others have tried and failed.

Anyways, as usual, a follow or favorite would be nice, but I would prefer a review. Tell me how to improve the story. Or if you think it's stupid that I put in another human/pokemon, but it gave me a good idea for the rest of the story. Honestly, I started the story with just a vague outline. Now I have all the details.

Sorry for rambling. I just want to clear two things up. One: in this chapter, I referenced the Wigglytuff Guild. This is an alternate universe version of that game. I only reference the Wigglytuff Guild just to reference. There is no Temperal Tower or Hidden Land-well, they won't come out in the plot. Two: can someone also explain to me why species of pokemon are named by the name of their species? All the Squirtles are named Squirtle, but why? Is it the the the Marklars from South Park? That's all I can think to relate it to

Again, sorry. When I think about the game in detail, I think of little holes in the story. So again, give me a review of the story so far.


	4. Chapter 4: Aggron

We stood before a massive cave in the side of a mountain. I could barely see a hundred feet or so in there before everything became shrouded in darkness. Occasionally the noises of pokemon echoed through. The grunts of Geodudes and Onixes (honestly I don't know how the plural of Onix would be spelled), the cries of Zubtas and Sandshrews, and the constant metronomic drip of water falling onto the cold cave floor.

"You should be glad that you have a Fire-Type to light the way," Pyro said proudly, waving his tail around.

"On the bright side we can see where we're going," Rose said. "On the other side, other pokemon will be attracted to the flame."

"That isn't my problem," Pyro said. "This'll be Riley's problem."

"Oh, thanks for your concern," I said sarcastically. Looking into the cave made me nervous. I don't know what's beyond this darkness besides aggressive pokemon. All I knew was that I'd have to fight them. _Well, this was gonna have to come eventually_, I thought. I took a single step forward, then almost immediately started trembling. _Come on, I can do this!_ I kept thinking. _I need the strength to start my journey, and I won't get it unless I take the first step into the dungeon._ _Rose was able to do this, and she's in the same situation I'm in. So I should be able to do this with ease…_ I slowly started to realize that I'm not good at giving inspirational speeches.

"You forgetting something?" Rose asked.

"Hm…? Oh, yeah," I said. My bag only held one item besides the map and badge, which was the TM Brick Break. I held the shiny disk between my paws, confused about what to do with it. I gave it a few pokes, half expecting something just might happen, but to no avail. "So, how do I make it work?" I asked.

Rose chuckled and walked over to me. "Here, it's simple," she said. She started tapping parts of it, seemingly pressing buttons that were not there before. "You just go around the edge to activate it, then you-" she was either muttering so quietly that I wasn't able to make out what she said or she just spewed some jibberish for a few seconds "-and there we go!" The TM lost its shine in an instant, and it flowed into me. I felt power and skill course through my veins in a sudden surge. I stared at my hands in disbelief, turning them over to see if anything changed. To my disappointment, no noticeable difference was there. "Feel any different?" she asked.

"Well, sorta," I answered. "I mean, I guess I feel a little different." I felt more or less the same as before. "It _did_ work, right?"

"Yeah," said Pyro. "Normally you don't really feel anything when you use a TM until you use the move."

"I'll tell you in about five minutes if that's true," I said. Confidence raised, I took a few more steps inside Eisen Cavern.

With Pyro's tail light illuminating the walls, the cave became a much more detailed place. Chunks of iron ore stuck out of the wall, glimmering in the light of the flame. Aron and Lairon were biting chunks of metal out from the cave walls with their mighty jaws, grinding it to a pulp between their teeth. I shuddered at the thought of getting my arm caught in one of their mouths.

"Don't worry," said Pyro. "The whole evolution of Aron tend to attack with slams. It'd be a first if they used their mouths in battle." Apparently he can read my thoughts pretty well.

"There's a first time for everything," I replied. Then I sighed and walked forward. _I'm actually about to do this_, I thought, closing in on an Aron. _I'll get used to it quickly if I do it long enough. And the Scarlet Scarf already demands that I should attack a lot of pokemon anyways. I have a long road ahead of me, paved of wild pokemon, and I can't do anything unless the first step is taken. I can do this! I just need to use Brick Break, and… wait_. "Hey, how do I use Brick Break?" I asked.

"You're kidding, right?" Pyro asked with a chuckle. "Arceus, you're just like Rose was about a year and a half ago. Moves come instinctively. When it's time, it'll come to you."

"Great," I sighed. "You're telling me to wait until the last moment."

"It's the best way to teach," said Rose. "One of the riskiest, but the most effective. I was taught the same way, and so was Pyro."

"Kirlia's team was there for support," Pyro said. "He's… what would we call him?"

"Well, he was a teacher for us," Rose said. "Now he's just another guild member."

"Let's just get this over with," I said. _Waiting until instinct takes over_, I thought. _I can't believe I'm doing this. _One of the Arons glared at me with his bright blue eyes. They were as cold as the steel surrounding his body, giving me a warning to stay back. As I took a few steps forward, he started snarling. One of the Lairons noticed, then moved towards me, slightly irritated to be distracted from his meal. I stopped in my tracks and stood there. This was a bigger target than I would have thought I would go after for my first time. _I can do this_, I thought to myself over and over. The Lairon emitted a low growl then scraped his foot along the ground like a bull before it charges. As if by reflex, I growled back, narrowing my eyes and baring my fangs. Until then I didn't realize I had fangs. As expected, this angered the Lairon. The Steel-Type roared and came barreling at me.

This was when the instinct took over. It wasn't the instinct about Brick Break that Pyro was talking about. No, it was more of a reflexive maneuver. My paws placed down at the Lairon's head plate, then I kicked my feet off the ground in a mere instant. Before the Lairon could react I flipped over him and behind him, nimbly landing on the cave floor. For a brief moment I was flooded with disbelief at the fact that I was able to do that. But surprisingly, a Lairon can turn around pretty fast, doing a sort of drift along the stone floor to turn around and get enough room for a second charge. The Lairon roared fiercely and charged at me again. This time I side stepped over to the side and let the Lairon chase past me and ram into a wall. Several shards of rock broke off the wall and scattered everywhere. The Steel-Type was unphased by this. He merely shook his head then turned towards me again. His head plate was slightly scratched but he was undamaged otherwise.

Another fierce roar came from its jaws as he ran at me. When he was only a few inches away, I pushed my arms against his head to get over to the side and dodge him. And then the instinct that Pyro was talking about showed itself. Strength focused into my fist-well, paw. My teeth clenched tighter than a vice. My arm loaded back, cocked and ready, then shot into the side of the head of the Lairon with a loud grunt coming from my jowl. The steel headplate had a large chunk broken out of it, with scraps of metal flying in all directions. The Lairon himself wasn't even able to manage a groan before he was sent flying into the wall, dazed and severely injured. He was barely able to gasp for air. I looked down at my paw. _How the hell did I do that?_ I asked myself. The Lairon then sputtered out and collapsed onto the ground.

"Arceus," Pyro muttered. "For your first attack you sure hit the hell out of him."

"I'm not even sure if _you_ can do that," Rose said, surprised.

"I don't have a Fighting or Ground-Type move," Pyro defended. "But still, that's incredibly impressive. A Lairon is a second stage, and he knocked it out in a single hit."

"I'm right here," I said, slightly irritated. "No need to talk like you're observing me from another room."

"He's a lot stronger than I would think he'd be for someone who nearly died from a bunch of Spearow," Rose said.

"So, I'm being ignored then?" I asked.

"I'd say he could join," said Pyro.

"As much as I'd say yes right now, strength isn't enough to be an explorer," Rose said. At that moment I almost wanted to yell at her. She knew I was a human, and she knew how I felt. But she was treating me just like normal. No, she was treating me even worse, like an applicant auditioning for a part in their team. Sure, I could understand that maybe she wasn't saying anything as to not tip off Pyro. I was so hopeful and overjoyed when I found someone in the same boat I was in, but now she's just so cold and distant, pretending as if she forgot.

"From how I see it, he has the strength, and the desire to explore," said Pyro. "Do you know what he has in his scarf?"

Rose raised an eyebrow. "No. Should I?" she asked.

"Riley, show her," Pyro ordered. Without hesitation, I reached between the folds of the Scarlet Scarf and showed her the folded up piece of paper. From the color she could almost tell what it was immediately, but I carefully unfolded it anyways. "That was the first thing he took off the boards this morning, almost promising himself that he'll go."

"Promises can be broken," said Rose.

"Listen," I said, folding the paper back up. "I know you're testing me and all that, but we're on a mission. Shouldn't we be going by now?"

"Correction," said Pyro, "_you're_ on a mission. We're just along for support."

"Whatever," I said, "Let's just go. I'd prefer to be able to see the way, but I'll go in blind if I have to."

"Sure. Lead the way," Rose sighed.

As we progressed through the caves, I encountered more and more darkness while staying inside the sphere of flickering light provided by Pyro's tail. We encountered many pokemon, most of which were Geodude and Zubats. As expected the Geodude were easier than the Zubat to handle. And as I fought I started to see what other moves I had in my arsenal. Bite, Quick Attack and Counter stood beside Brick Break. And slowly as I used these moves, knocking down pokemon after pokemon, the Scarlet Scarf began to gradually become a more pure shade of red. Originally it resembled the color of brick, but now it's more like an apple. The logic behind how a mere scarf could do something like that kept gnawing at the back of my head as I ventured through Eisen Cavern.

After what seemed like forever, we reached the end of Eisen Cavern. The room was surrounded in large, jagged chunks of metals sticking out of the walls. From what I could tell there were no pokemon in the room besides the three of us.

"We should've ran into Kabutops by now," I muttered, scanning the room.

"According to the job," Pyro said, pulling out the piece of paper, "Kabutops is an explorer, like us. He might be trying to explore his way out of the dungeon."

"So, we wait here?" Rose asked.

"Or we could walk back and meet him there," Pyro suggested, his claws on his chin. "It's up to him."

"Hmmm." If I go out to search for him, I might miss him if he comes back. But who knows when he'll return? What if he found his way out of here already? The more fun choice would be to adventure out there in the dungeon, searching for him. But it would be smarter and safer if I stay here for Kabutops to come to me.

"Damn it," a voice echoed through the caves. Pyro, Rose and I turned around. Of course it was too dark to see anything. "Is… is that a light?" asked the voice. "Oi! Is that an exploration team?!"

Pyro looked at me, expecting me to know what to do. "Y-yeah," I shouted back. "You're Kabutops, right?"

"If you know me, I'm assuming you came to save me," Kabutops said, now starting to jog towards us. "I'm guessing my kid sent you guys here. Good thing, too. I was on the verge of running out of food." As he got closer he was able to make out who we are. I could hear the disappointment in his voice. "A bunch of kids came to save me?" he sighed.

"Is there a problem with that?" Rose scoffed.

"Yeah, there is," he said, a little caution in his tone. "I was hoping that if anyone came for me that it'd be someone strong enough."

"Enough for what?" I asked. As if on cue, an enraged roar boomed through the caves. It was painfully loud, and it was when I realized that a Riolu can hear severely better than a normal human can.

"For _that_," Kabutops said, pointing one of his scythes behind him and running even faster. "I'd recommend running."

"What the hell is that?" Pyro asked, readying his stance.

"This whole place is littered with iron chunks and Aron and Lairon. So naturally there'd be an Aggron here, too," Kabutops answered. He quickly jumped into the sphere of light provided by Charmander's tail. "They're extremely territorial, and even more aggressive." Loud footsteps shook the room. "I've been trying to get out of here, but I always end up back here. About ten minutes afterwards, I flee back into the dungeon, ashamed though I am to admit it."

"Then why did you come here?" asked Rose, followed by another roar.

"Well, a researcher named Raichu wanted to see what's at the end of this place," he said. "You see, this is a fairly new place, and Raichu thought that there might be something interesting at the end. He set up a job, and I accepted. And I wish I hadn't."

The roar was even closer. I could practically see Aggron's shimmering armor from Pyro's light.

"Sorry that you came herre," Kabutops said.

"No worries," Rose relieved. "We may just be kids but we're fully capable… well, we are. We're testing Riley."

"Oi," I spat.

"Just being honest," she said. "So that if you fail, it won't ruin our reputation." She said this with a laugh. _Because apparently I didn't already prove myself already_, I thought.

"What little reputation you have," I muttered.

"You seem to be ignoring the problem here," Kabutops said, pointing a scythe at the Aggron. His icy blue eyes came into view, and they pierced into me. His glance was sharper than the two horns on his head. His grunts shook me more than his heavy footsteps. His tail looked like a stone club, and moved as fluidly as a whip. His claws looked worn, nowhere near as sharp as they once were, but I still felt that he could easily crush me with a single hand. And those two horns above his eyes… I could feel them just by looking at them. And he did not look friendly.

"I didn't think that there would be more pokemon would be stupid enough to cross my territory," Aggron boomed. "My father before me once had this mountain, and many people knew to stay away from here. But now this is mine, and I guess people've forgotten." This was followed by a hardy yet intimidating laugh.

"I don't need all this exposition," Kabutops spat. "Either let us go or attack."

"I'd prefer the former," I said.

"Like I said, people've forgotten," said Aggron, his powerful jaws grinning. "And people need to remember again. Explorers like you will be perfect examples!" Then immediately he charged towards us. Compared to a Lairon, Aggron's body is faster, and much more dangerous. Avoid the whip-like tail, the powerful arms and legs, and those daggers he has for horns. Basically, avoid everything. Logically I should have ran away. I had already accomplished my mission. I had no more business there. But some unknown force kept me standing there, staying within this room, accepting Aggron's challenge to fight. My brain told me to run, that there was no way I could defeat him like this, not at least without any indirect attacks. But my gut slapped by brain and took the wheel.

Rose, Pyro and Kabutops all jumped away when Aggron charged towards us, and my brain begged me to follow them, but I sidestepped beside him. Our eyes met for an instant before I clenched my teeth together. Power again focused into my fist as I readied a Brick Break. But before I could do anything, Aggron pivited on his foot closest to me and slammed an Iron Tail directly into me. It was like a train ramming into me at full speed, knocking the wind out of me with a little bit of blood.

"Riley!" Rose shouted. _So now she's showing some concern,_ I thought. Then I shook my head, realizing it's not the time to be thinking that.

"L-lucky shot," I managed to say, wiping blood off of my jowl. That was the second most powerful attack I'd taken that day, only barely topped by Rhyperior's air blast that morning.

"You alright?" Pyro asked, worry in his voice.

"_This_ is the help that comes to save me," Kabutops muttered to himself.

"This is nothing," I panted. My body was aching, damn near limp, but I can manage. Maybe. I hope so.

"You can barely stand," Aggron mocked. "I'd say it's at least something."

I looked over to my friends and Kabutops. "Are you guys gonna do something? Or just fuckin' stand there?"

"I wouldn't," said Kabutops. "I've tried. I've managed to do a little damage with my Water-Type attacks. His Steel-Type attacks nearly kill me."

"That's partially because of his type advantage," Rose said.

"Can you guys cut the shit?" I asked. "Honestly I'm surprised he's been standing there, politely waiting for us to finish talking."

"You're welcome," he said. "I have to agree. Let's cut the shit and get back to fighting." He stamped his mighty foot on the ground, and Rock Tombs stabbed out of the ground and blocked the exits. "Honestly I don't know why I didn't do this when hunting down Kabutops. Would've made the effort a lot easier."

My strength had returned slowly back to me. My legs were less sturdy than bags of pudding, but they would have to do. _Jesus_, I thought to myself. _That tail hurts like a bitch. If I get hit again I might not be able to stand back up._ Slowly I extended my legs and sorta stood there, mostly supported by the wall behind me. _Only one attack and I'm already nearly out for the count._

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Aggron said, his voice now a little threatening. "The three of you have waited so patiently." He took a few steps closer towards them.

"Y-you're forgetting someone," I panted.

"You might wanna take a second to breathe," Rose suggested

"You should follow your friend's advice," Aggron said. "You should take your time to strengthen up as much as possible before I decide it's your turn."

"Actually, we're here just to watch over Riley," Pyro said. "You can fight us, but we won't fight back until either Riley asks us to or if you knock him out."

Aggron let out a brief chuckle, then turned to me. "Hear that, kid?" he asked. "Your friends are gonna let ya' die. You have no hope."

"Shut up!" I screamed. Slowly I pushed myself up with my trembling arms and looked him in his icy blue eyes. My teeth were clenched so tight I think my gums might have been bleeding. My legs were still unstable but I forced them to hold me up. "There…" I took one step forward and, to my surprise, didn't fall onto the cold cave floor. Then I glared at him and continued: "There's _always_ hope!" And I started running at him, the red scarf trailing behind me. _Avoid the tail. Avoid the tail_, I told myself.

"So he still has some fight in him," Aggron said. "I'm slightly impressed." Then he stomped down a foot onto the cold cave floor as a pivot. His body then quickly turned and that heavy tail came swinging for me. Again that same instinct took over, and I felt as if I was a spectator in my own body. I narrowly dodged the tail by jumping over it, feeling it whizz by. Then I growled and smashed a Brick Break into his arm. Pieces of stone chipped off of him and scattered onto the floor. Aggron whailed in pain, thrashing about. He put his dull claw over the spot where I hit him. "A little bit too much fight in him," he muttered. "Just the way I'd like it."

"Remind me to thank the Kecleon Brothers for TM Brick Break when we get back into town," I told them.

"Give them my thanks as well," Aggron said. "Thanks to them I'll have an interesting fight." Again he stamped his foot on the ground, though this time is was many time lighter than the previous ones. Before they shook the entire room. But this one was barely audible, let alone felt. And while I was trying to figure our what he was doing, a series of small stone walls rose out of the ground, encompassing my foot. I pulled as hard as I could to get it free, but to no gain. Then Aggron lowered his head, pointing those dual horns directly at me. And they looked even sharper when you're staring at them straight on. I knew exactly what he was going to do. I finally knew how the coyote feels when his foot gets caught in the trap.

Aggron came charging at me with an Iron Head. _Dodging isn't an option. All I can do is try my best to avoid the horns, and even then his body will hit me. If that happens, I'll get hit with a lot of damage… though my trap will break. It's a better option than gnawing off my paw_. Though I decided that if I'm getting hit, I'm hitting him back just as hard. Again I focused a Brick Break into my hands and waited. Aggron came sprinting at me, ground shaking with each step.

During those few seconds I saw Rose and Pyro out of the corner of my eyes. They seemed both worried and disappointed. They probably had a conversation about how they chose the wrong level of missions for me to go on a little before I looked over. But more than anything their eyes told me that what I was about to do was wrong. But what else could I do? I couldn't move because of the Rock Tomb around my foot… that's it! Aggron was so close I could feel his breath on my face. It smelled of rust and metal. I had to do this quickly. So I slammed the Brick Break on the ground.

The moments after that were hazy at best, most likely because of the cloud of dust that emerged from Aggron's collision with the wall behind me. All I know is that I avoided him, due to the fact I was still standing. He was dazed and confused from hitting the wall, and stuck there by his horns.

"Damn it," he muttered, furiously trying to jerk away. I saw my opportunity right there. It was as if he was handing himself to me on a silver platter. I fiercely roared-for effect of course-and jumped towards him. Brick Break after Brick Break slammed his head further and further into the wall. With each one a grunt escaped from my jowl, and a groan of pain came from Aggron's jaw. His tail repeatedly swung at me, flailing about like a fish on the docks. When his tail went limp I started to get concerned. My Brick Breaks stopped, and I just stood there. Everyone was silent besides Aggron, gently weeping into the side of the cave. He seemed like the last person who would cry at all, let alone in front of his enemies. Especially for someone so aggressive. "My first fight, and I lose to a _kid_," he cried, muffled by the stone. I was surprised for a moment to hear that I was his first fight, but would later remember that his dad's legacy kept people away from the mountain until recently.

"No one will know," I said meekly, not really sure what to do here.

He smashed a hand on the cave wall, breaking off several large chunks. "But I will know!" he screamed. "Scars on my armor and my pride!... Well? Aren't ya' gonna finish me off?"

"Well, I was," I said, "but it wouldn't be right. You have the strength to beat me, but almost no experience." I shouldn't be talking about experience. The only reason I won was because of some instinct that took over. "So, I'll make you a deal. You let the four of us go, and I promise that I'll come back for a rematch someday."

"Hmph! And why should I trust your word?" he asked.

"Well, I didn't finish you off already," I answered. "Plus, because of this." I smashed another Brick Break, though this time into the wall directly beside his face. He was now easily able to pull himself out. "Isn't that enough?"

Aggron chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it is." He extended a claw. "You have to promise me," he said. "This wound on my pride will not heal until we fight again."

I smiled and grabbed his claw. "It's a promise," I said. Aggron stamped his foot again, and the rock tombs fell back down.

"You're free to go," he said. "Sorry about the whole thing."

"It's fine," Rose said. "You helped prove that Riley can join us. He's more than capable, I'd say."

"Half the reason he won was due to type advantage, but it's impressive nonetheless," Pyro added. "Welcome to Team Hell Raisers."

When we got back into town, the first thing I did was go to the Kecleon Brothers and thank them immensely for giving me TM Brick Break and saving my life. Then we returned Kabutops to his worried son, Kabuto. Kabuto had tears in his eyes, fearing that his dad might have been dead. Kabutops was just relieved to be out of Eisen Cavern.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. We all gathered for dinner in the mess hall then went back to our rooms for the night. Rose and Pyro treated me more or less the same afterwards, as if I had always been a part of the team. I was hoping at least Rose would act different towards me, finding out I was human like her. Things just seem normal around here. Well, normal compared to what I remember. I fell back onto the plush hay and drifted to sleep, anticipating what would come next.

* * *

Oh my God it took forever to write this. I had to move into a new place, I had school, I am so sorry it took me this long to update this. Please forgive me.

Reader: You miserable slug! You honestly think you can talk your way out of this

Me: No, I didn't. Honest... I lost my charger. I broke my fingers. I didn't have enough money to fix 'em. The keyboard was acting up. An old friend came in from town. Someone stole my laptop. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!... oh, and I was watching the Blues Brothers

Anyways, being serious, I'm sincerely sorry it took me so long. And I kinda rushed the last thousand or so words to the story just so you guys could get it, so it's the worst part of it. Though, good news, during all that time off I figured out how this will all play out in the end. So, again, a follow or favorite would be nice, but what I'd really like from you guys is a review. Tell me how to improve the story, or anything like that. And thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5: Markus

Alright. This chapter is kinda slow, but I implore you to keep reading.

* * *

It has been several months since my encounter with Aggron. During those months I went through many exhilarating adventures that got my blood pumping. I got stronger and stronger, partially thanks to the Scarlet Scarf. My skills increased. I learned more about the world around me, and more about the pokemon, too. I became one of the stronger members of the guild, and, with Rose and Pyro behind me, rivaled even Kirlia's team. I had expected those months to be filled with grand adventures and expeditions, and so I was disappointed. Although I had smaller excursions to dungeons every day to pass the time.

As it turns out I was right about Rose. She was merely pretending that everything was normal while Pyro was around. She still read in the library about the connections between humans and pokemon every morning, and occasionally I'd go with here. Alakazam would keep a sceptical eye on us while still reading three or four books of his own at the same time. And when we walked Rose would tell me all the theories she read about, and about a few that she pieced together on her own. Unfortunately, none of them helped us out very much.

One day, in early spring, an interesting mission caught my eye. While Pyro scanned the red board for criminals to catch, I searched the green one. It read the following:

_We've gotten word and proof of a new continent across the seas, never before explored. We need tough explorers to join me to journey to this new place. On March 26th in a small town north of Wingull's Roost, a ship called the Storm Tamer will take off. Explorer, join me on the ship. Help discover what's been hidden away for the last centuries._

The moment I read the words 'never before explored' I snatched it off the board, my eyes shimmering with excitement. "Pyro!" I shouted to get his attention.

He jumped a little, not expecting me to be so hyper this early in the morning. "What is it?" he asked, a little annoyed.

"Take a look at this!" I said, practically shoving the paper in his face.

"Let's see," he mumbled, scanning over the paper. His expression changed to one of reluctance. "Eh… I'm not sure about this," he said.

"What?!" I screamed, deafening everyone else in the room.

"I'm just not a big fan of water," he said. "I'm not sure if you know this but if the flame on my tail goes out, I'll die."

"But… but, adventure," I said, in hopes that what I just said was somehow convincing.

"I just don't know. I have a Weather Cap just to make sure rain doesn't snuff the flame out, but it doesn't protect against Water-Type moves or waves," said Pyro. "It's a huge weakness of mine that's stopped me from ever going across the seas."

"Don't you want to discover what's out there?!" I asked.

"Yeah, but… you don't get it," he said. "Imagine if you were in my shoes. If you died if your tail got too wet. Would you wanna go across the ocean?"

"Well…" he made a good point. A heavy sigh floated out from my jowl. "And I was getting so excited, too."

"For what it means, I'm sorry," he said. But I couldn't just leave this for anyone to get their inexperienced hands on. No, that would wasteful. So I folded it up and put it next to the job about the Mountain of Myths in my scarf. "Here we go," Pyro said, snatching another job off the board. "A Metang who was last spotted in Eastern Forest. Sounds better."

"Yeah," I sighed.

"Look, it's not my fault I was born so weak to water," he said. "Let's just go meet up with Rose." He started climbing the latter. "Say, what does she even do in the mornings?"

"Buying items," I said, following him up the latter. Quick, but not great. I could've done better, but if I spent more time it would look suspicious. "Reviver Seeds and what not. You know, what we could use if you get your tail wet."

"Do I need to repeat myself?" he said. "I can't. For like the fifth time."

"I remember," I pouted. As we left the Guild, Murkrow shouted down to us.

"Where ya' headed today?" he asked to us.

"Eastern Forest," Pyro replied.

"Oh. I'd have expected you guys would've taken the job to go to the new continent," Murkrow said.

"I think Kirlia did," Mismagius added. Instantly I was confused. I had already taken the mission off the board. "I don't know if it's that job exactly, but he said he was going a little north of Wingull's Roost."

"I'm just glad I don't have to go. The new land sounds fun, but Wingull's Roost is just so loud and annoying. They never shut up. And Arceus, that smell," Murkrow ranted. "Yeah, I'm happy here in the Crow's Nest."

"Really? Usually you'd be all over any opportunity that even has the possibility of treasure," Misdreavus said. "Who knows what's there? Gems, gold… hell, now I wanna go."

"You might be able to get Floatzel to bring you back a nugget," Murkrow said. I forgot that Buizel had evolved a few weeks ago.

"Yeah, but if Kirlia finds out he'd toss those coins out in the ocean," Misdeavus said.

"Never understood why he's so strict… oh, sorry you two. Didn't mean to keep ya' with my rambling."

"That's fine," said Pyro. "See you later."

As we walked away, I leaned in and said "Even they think it's a good idea to go there."

"Don't make me say it again," Pyro said.

"But it sounds-"

"I will slap you."

I silenced myself. I pushed it a little too far.

"Thanks," he said. We leaned back in our normal spot on the watering hole, against the stone well. We watched other pokemon pass by on their way to their own dungeons. A few of them spoke of the new continent, disappointed that they can't go."

"Everyone but you wants to go," I said.

"Everyone but me won't be killed by water," he added.

"Sitting by the watering hole hasn't killed you," I muttered.

"Just… just stop," he said.

Rose came walking by about ten minutes later, and during those ten minutes I was unsuccessful at convincing him. She came right in the middle of attempt number 58. "What're you two arguing about?" she asked.

"I'm trying to get him to agree to go to the new land," I said.

"It's gotten really old really fast," Pyro added.

"Why don't you wanna go?" Rose asked.

"Not you, too," he sighed. "Because if my tail goes out I'll die."

"So? Ships have cabins that you can stay in and not die," she said.

"You know what?! Fine! I've had it! If it will shut everyone up, I'll go!" he exploded. The flame on his tail burned brighter. "You happy?!"

"Yes, very," I said with a smile across my face. "Sounds better than a Metang." That Metang would later become a brilliant mastermind and be the leader of a intricate crime network, all because no one stopped him while he was in Eastern Forest.

"You do know where Wingull's Roost is, right?" Pyro asked. "If we leave right now we'll get there on the 25th or 26th, and that's if we hurry. So I'd recommend we get running."

Through the next two days I traversed my way through the lands. Over mountains and rivers, through forests and deserts. Pyro kept complaining, saying that this wasn't worth getting us to shut up. As we journeyed across these environments I felt like I was going on an expedition. Part of me was wondering why Gallade didn't bring his whole guild together and have everyone explore together. Hell, after I joined the guild the most I've seen of him is his introductions in the morning. Then he retreats to his room, presumably to stare at the mountain some more. And every day I'd hope that he would take a break from his view of the mountain and think of an expedition. One that would make this look like a walk in the park.

Two uneventful days later, just north of Wingull's Roost (which matched Murkrow's description perfectly, painful to my nose and my ears, both of which are more sensitive than a normal human's), we spotted a small town. It was no Treasure Town, but it had its charm to it. Most of the houses were made of a tanned wood, along with most of the businesses. The more popular part of town was by the port. On one side it was docks for large ships, and on the other there were popular shops. And the entire town had that salty sea smell to it. I took a few deep breaths of it, savoring it.

"Finally," Pyro said. "Two days of walking sounds a lot less on paper."

"Isn't it worth it though?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I thought my complaining would have gotten that point across."

"Pyro, just shut up," Rose said. "We get that you're fragile around water."

"Fine," he sighed.

On the docks ships were lined up perfectly and elegantly. Several pokemon-most of which were fighting types-were moving heavy crates below deck. I watched them with awe as I walked along. Some of them held a few hundred pounds of iron and they casually hoisted them over their shoulders.

"We're looking for a ship named Storm Tamer, right?" Pyro asked.

"Yeah, I think so," I answered.

"Good. Because I found it. Third from the end." He rose a claw towards a boat with a Gyrados as the headpiece. And beside it was engraved two words: _Storm Tamer_. From what I could tell it was a caravel, with a few cannons at the sides. One of which pointed out of the Gyrados's mouth. The masts poked into the sky, with a few Monfernos were climbing the ropes and sails, waiting to take off. And the one voice barking orders to everyone was a Sandslash. "Bring those below deck! Hurry up, we're leaving in an hour!" he shouted.

"Excuse me," Rose said. Sandslash turned an eye to her. "We're here about the job."

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. You're lookin' for Markus," he said. "He's usin' Storm Tamer as a ride there. You'll find him in the cabin."

"Thanks," she said, then climbed up the rope ladder. I never knew how she could climb up with flowers for hands. I followed behind her, and Pyro behind me. He seemed almost sick to be here. On the deck of the ship provided a better view of the ocean. A vast expanse of blue stretching beyond the horizon glimmering in the sunlight was our world to travel today. And beyond that horizon is the new land. "In here?" she asked, pointing to the cabin on the front of the ship. Sandslash nodded.

"Though I'd knock before entering," he said, still looking to his crew. "He don't like t' be seen… hey!" He angrily moved towards one of his crewmates. "If ya' drop that I will drop ya' into Kyogre's Locker! That's worth more than your life t' me!"

"Interesting group of people," I said under my breath. Rose knocked on the door with the blue flower-again, how?-a solid three knocks. There were a few seconds of silence until something turned over, followed by a groan.

"Excuse me, is Markus here?" she asked.

'I'll be out in a damn second," he grumbled. Again there was a moment of silence, then it was broken by a few heavy footsteps. The door unlocked, then the footsteps went back further into the room. "Well? Come in," he said. Rose obliged and opened the door.

The room was dark, the only source of light spilling in from the crack between the drapes from the window. The door closed behind us and negated the chatter from the crew, filling the room with an unsettling silence. The pokemon who answered us had his entire body wrapped in cloth to keep his identity hidden. For good measure he also wore a hooded cloak, and a bandana around his mouth. From the body shape I couldn't tell anything about him. Maybe he could have been a Machoke, but I couldn't say for sure. The only thing that showed was his eyes. They were deep green, reminding me of a meadow. They were peaceful and trusting. He sat in a chair which faced away from the window, with a book closed in his hands and a bookmark about half way through. _How can he read with no light_?.

"You the team who responded to my job?" he asked.

"Yes sir," answered Rose. "Team Hell Raisers, at your service."

"Great," he mumbled. "A bunch of kids got excited and took the job before anyone experienced could grab it. I sent it to Gallade's Guild, expecting that Team Camelot would take the job."

"So does that mean you're Markus?" Rose asked. The pokemon nodded. "Well then, Markus, we'll provide a better job than Kirlia's team ever could."

"Well, you might be able to prove that to me," Markus said. "You see, the captain of this ship, Sandslash, put up a job of his own. I didn't care enough to ask what it was, but apparently it attracted Kirlia's team's attention. And his job will take place during our ride there. Sandslash was the only one willing to take me, and half the reason is because he's going that way, so I was forced to take a ride from a pirate like him. Anyways, as I was saying, if it's needed you can test yourself against Kirlia by helping him out."

"Do you know where he is?" I asked.

"Ask Sandslash," he said. "So, any other questions?"

"...Not really," I said.

"Good. The boat takes off tomorrow. You can either sleep below deck with the crew, or find an inn. If you do the inn, wake up early. The boat takes off at the crack of dawn. So, be there." He moved his eyes down to his book and pretended as if we weren't there.

"...That's it?" I asked. "I walked for two days, expecting great adve-"

"Let me stop you there," he said, glaring up from his book. "The continent is a good ways away, considering no one has yet to find it. So you're going to wait for even longer than this. Unless you're gonna swim there-which'll be even slower-you're gonna be bored for a while." I heavily sighed, thinking about wasting time here. It would probably be weeks until we get there. "Half the reason I brought a book. You still have time so I'd get some for yourself." He went back down to his book. "That's all." There was an awkward silence for a moment before we took our leave.

When the door opened the chatter of the crew flooded into us. I almost forgot I was on a boat surrounded by pirates while I was in there. It was like coming from an elegant winery to a rowdy bar filled with excited shouts and the clang of beer mugs slamming together in cheers. Some of them might have actually been drunk.

"So, we have a day to relax," Rose said. "I don't know about you but I'm gonna follow Markus's advice and get some books. Pyro, if you'd please."

"S-sure," he said, still a little sick. He reached into the bag by his side and pulled out a few thousand Poke. "That should be enough, right?"

"More than enough," she said with a faint smile. She was about to head out, but she stopped suddenly and came back. "Almost forgot," she said. "Where are we gonna spend the night?"

I hadn't thought about it until now, really. We could go to an inn for comfort and quiet, but have to wake up extremely early. Or we could stay on the ship and not have to have a stressful, rushed morning, but most likely have to deal with the loud crew. Comfort or efficiency, comfort or efficiency… just in case they leave early, I would wanna make sure I'm here. "I vote for staying here," I said.

"I'd rather spend as much time as possible as I could off the boat," Pyro threw in.

"I wouldn't want to rush out the door in the mornings, so I'll vote for the ship," Rose said. "Two to one, the ship has it. I'll meet you back here tonight." And with that, she jumped off the ship and walked into town.

"Well? What're you gonna do?" Pyro asked me.

"Well, I was hoping for an adventure today, but… I guess I'll go look for Kirlia's team," I said. "I mean, there's nothing else for me to do."

"So, you don't need any Poke... but just in case." He reached into his pocket and gave me a thousand Poke. "In case you run into any shops of some sort."

"What about you?" I asked. "What're you going to do all day?"

"Well," he had a skeptical, hesitant look on his face. "I'll just say that half the reason I accepted is because of some previous business." He leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "Don't tell rose this, but I'm not going to be on the ship tonight. Don't worry, I'll be back by morning, but just… Rose might think that I'm gonna run from this."

"Understood," I said. "Cover for you if Rose asks."

"Thanks," he said, pulling back. "Now, if I want to be back in time, I need to leave. Like, now." Then he ran off the ship and into the town. Part of me thought that he'd be heading back to Treasure Town, strengthened by remembering his constant complaining. I almost wanted to follow him for a little bit to check what direction he's heading. But another part of me told me to trust him. Let him do what he's got planned. And to do what I have planned.

"Excuse me," I said to Sandslash, who was still overseeing his crew. He looked over to me, but didn't say a word. "Kirlia was here, wasn't he?"

"Team Camelot? Yeah, I was lucky to get them," he replied. "Markus is kinda jealous though. The whole team is helping out my crew, getting stuff ready. I think Floatzel is cleaning the bottom of the ship, Luxio is below deck somewhere… and Kirlia was here earlier. Honestly I don't know where he went."

"You lost track of him," I sighed. "Great. At least you know where Luxio and Floatzel are."

"When you have to choose between keeping track of an experienced explorer or making sure the water that will keep us all alive doesn't spill, you choose the water," he said. "I'm sure you'd know that from experience, being an explorer as well."

"Well, thanks for the help," I said. Luxio conveniently walked up from below deck almost the instant afterwards. He spotted me as he was walking up the stairs.

"Didn't expect to see you here," he said. "I'm gonna guess you came here for Markus's mission?"

"Yeah," I answered. "Rose and Pyro are in town. We saw this job and it looked fun, so we snatched it off the board before anyone else could."

"We would've taken it, but the board got updated before we left. Kirlia seemed kinda upset about it. I told him we could just join the team who went, but… well, you know him. Always does things by the rules."

"I was going to look for Kirlia to ask him a question, but you'd know the answer. What was the job Sandslash asked you to do?" I asked.

"You were going to hunt him down just for a trivial question like that?" he scoffed. "Well, it's an interesting answer nonetheless. It turns out that Sandslash was heading out to get a really good catch." Then he whispered "Kyogre."

My jaw dropped, hearing this. I was utterly speechless. Not because someone was insane enough to go after the god of the seas, risking his life in the process, and the life of everyone on Storm Tamer. But because that I would be able to see Kyogre in person, and maybe even be able to fight with him. Then I closed my jaw as I realized something.

"Great," I sighed. "Not only do I have to wait for the new continent, but I have to wait for Kyogre, too."

"I know," said Luxio. "So, not that you have nothing else to do, wanna help make the process faster and help out? You don't have to but it's better than doing nothing."

"Sure, why not?"

The next few hours were rather enjoyable. At first all the Machoke and Vigoroth were just loud and annoying to me. But they quickly became likable, and actually pretty funny. Crude, but funny. And none more so than the leader, Machamp. He would carry two heavy crates on his shoulders and almost never stop talking. And when he did the room would be filled with laughter from whatever joke he just said. He savored it like an aristocrat savors his wine, then would try for more, though his crude albeit hilarious jokes were of subject that any aristocrat would avoid at any cost.

Those few hours were over, and were proven to be by Sandslash shouting "That's enough for now! Get ready for tomorrow!" The Machoke and Vigoroth all sighed with relief, put down their crates and went into a new room below deck. I didn't go in but I got a good glimpse from where I was. It was a bland room lit only by the light of a fading sun through the window. The only thing inside the room was a good hundred and fifty or so rope hammocks that the various pokemon crawled into. After getting to know the crew I considered following them into the room, but I wasn't an actual part of them. I didn't feel that I had the right to. At least not yet. Floatzel, Luxio and Kirlia, being the captain's guest, got their own room, like Markus. Being the guest of a guest holds no such privilege. We already voted to meet up on the ship, but I'm not sleeping with the crew. So this leaves me with one option.

After I climbed up to the main deck, I looked around. Sandslash had just retreated into the Captain's Quarters and Markus never even left his room. Kirlia's team was in the only other guest room, right next to Markus's. Even if I had the money-which I probably do, considering that this is a pirate ship-I wouldn't be able to sleep. But as I looked around, my eyes were glued to the ocean ahead of me. The sun sat beyond the horizon, beyond the endless expanse of ocean. In the setting sun the sea was a faded orange. A glimmering golden cone reflected in the waves, and it was absolutely beautiful. The salty sea air, the gentle washing of the waves onto the shore… I could stare at this forever. And I'd prefer to chase it down and follow it to the new land. But that has to wait for tomorrow.

"You've seen a sunset a hundred times," Rose said. I jumped when I heard her voice. "And they never lose their wonder, don't they?"

"Y-yeah, I guess," I answered.

She looked around for a second. "Where's Pyro?" she asked.

"Oh." _Quick, think of something_. "He's… he's helping out Sandslash…" _More than that, you idiot._ "One of his crew wasn't able to pick up something he needed, so Pyro went to go get it." _Good. Not great, but acceptable_.

"Any idea when he'll be back?" she asked.

"Late tonight," I said. "I would've gone with him, but I was helping out the crew myself."

"Sounds kinda like he ran away," she muttered.

"I thought the same thing," I said. "Hopefully he'll be here in the morning." _Shit, I ended up blowing his cover a little bit_.

"If he runs away I'm gonna let him have it," she said. "Anyways." She reached into her bag and pulled out about ten books. They were all thick and bound in leather. The one on the top of the stack was slightly larger than the others. The cover had an illustration of an island that was floating up in the air. It looked as if it was pulled up from the ground. A mountain was cut off at the edge of the island, and at the opposite end there was half a crater. I assumed it once was a lake but all the water drained out. And rich, lush forests covered most of the island with a deep green. And below this was the title: _The Exploration of the Heaven's Isles_. "This one's for you," she said, handing it to me.

"Thanks," I said. I took in the book into my paws and took in a second glance at the cover. Beautiful artwork, and hand drawn too. I flipped the first page, and the first thing I noticed was the author, Gardevoir, and her note to the reader. _For their expedition I was able to see them prepare. They even gave me the privilege of coming with them for the first part of their journey. I kept an Escape Orb with me in case things got dicey, but I was honored to join them for as long as I did. I was only able to make it as far as to see the view you had on the cover. You'll find out why if you cintinue reading. But a big thanks to Bisharp and Gallade to letting me go as far as I did. _Gallade? There are many Gallades in the world, but could this be the one that ran the guild? Immediately I'm interested. _When they returned from their expedition they told me their story, a much more simplified version of what you're about to read. So a big thanks to Team Excalibur for not only telling me of their adventure, but for letting me write their story._

"I'd figure that you'd like to hear something about adventure," Rose said. "And-"

"Is this about _our_ Gallade?" I asked.

"Figured you'd wanna know," she said. "Yeah, it's him. He used to be partnered up with a pokemon named Bisharp. They were famous explorers until about eight years ago, a little bit after Kirlia was born."

"Amazing," I whispered, looking down at the book.

"So if we have nothing else to do tonight, I'm gonna head to bed," Rose said.

"Just to let you know, the only available beds are the hammocks where the crew sleeps," I warned.

"Well, where else can we sleep?" she asked.

"I was gonna head up to the crow's nest. Seemed quiet enough," I answered.

"Hope you don't mind if I join you," she said. "It's either that or I have to go with a bunch of sweaty, classless brutes."

"They're not bad if you get to know them," I said. _Well, not bad if you also lower yourself to the same mental class as them_, I thought. "But sure, go ahead." She climbed up the rope ladder and into the crows nest. As usual, I followed close behind her. She picked a book from her pile and opened it. For a brief moment she looked intrigued, but then looked up to me.

"You learn anything about getting into the human world?" she asked. "Because I couldn't find shit." I shook my head. I hadn't really been going out of my way to look, but I haven't been sitting around, either. "Damn," she sighed. "To be honest half the reason I accepted to go was the possibility to find a new lead on a way back." She turned to the sun, her eyes empty, hollow. "It's certainly beautiful… but it isn't the same sun I used to know."

"Agreed… wait. You remember the sun?"

"Yeah. It's hard to forget."

"No. I mean, you remember things from the human world?"

"Yeah. I almost forgot that you didn't." She laughed. "After about six months I started remembering some things. They were minor, in dreams at first. But now I remember that I lived in a small town in Northwest America." I raised an eyebrow, and she laughed again. "You probably don't even know where that is," she said.

"Great," I pouted, folding my arms. "Now I'll be questioning every dream I have until I finally get the right one."

"So if nothing's new, I guess I'll just read myself to sleep," she said. Then she lowered her eyes back to her book, reminding me of Markus. "So, in case I fall asleep before then, goodnight."

"Night."

More hours had passed and the moon was high in the sky, shining like a pale silver pearl. I was shrouded in the night wind, feeling it brush past me. The only sounds were that of the wind and Rose's breathing, book over her face in a rather cute way, and the still melodic washing of the waves. They were soothing to me. I probably would've fallen asleep if I wasn't so excited to go tomorrow. And because this book is so damn good. I'm only on chapter 3 and I'm already thrilled.

Interrupting my read was the quiet creak of a wooden door slowly opening, piercing the night. A sliver of light spilled out as I peered down below. Sandslash was slowly tiptoeing across the deck, looking around as to not be seen. If it weren't for the door I might have not noticed him. He opened Markus's door and walked inside. Immediately I was intrigued. The book can wait, this can not. I marked my page then stealthily climbed down the ladder. Even from outside I could overhear them.

"You're awake?" Markus said.

"That's my line," Sandslash countered.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure you have more pressing matters than snarkiness," Markus sighed.

"You're right. I just came to ask one question." There was a painful silence, followed by another sigh by Markus, as if he knew what the question was. "You see, you intrigued me. You were wrapped in cloth, concealing your identity. At first I thought you were a criminal looking for a place to hide. Then you sent that job out. A criminal wouldn't bring himself more attention than necessary. So that was out. But why did you conceal your identity?" Now that he mentioned it, it is a concerning matter. I had been wondering something similar when I saw him. "So I did some searching around. It was difficult to do, only having the name Markus to work with. But I managed to find an event from three years ago. Where a pokemon wrapped all in cloth suddenly appeared and attacked another pokemon with a bladed weapon. Similar to what you have in the corner there. So I was able to find out just who you are." There was another pause. "Or should I say _what_ you are, Markus. The human."

* * *

After Chapter 4 and its straight forward exploration of a dungeon, I decided to make a more plot ridden chapter. While I was writing Chapter 4 I thought of a lot of details about the rest of the story, so I wrote some of the smaller ideas I had down in this chapter. Personally I think I stuffed a little too much in this chapter, but it's all setting up something great. I stuffed a little too much here so that nothing really happened that was too exciting until the end. But if I didn't bore the hell out of you and you kept reading, my thanks. And as usual, please give me a review of the story so far. Tell me what you think of the story so far and how I could improve it.


	6. Chapter 6: Sailing to Adventure

I couldn't believe what I had just heard. My mind kept revolving around two thoughts, one about why he would want to go to the new land and the other about the fact that there's another one like us. Hell, I think he might even have a human body, too.

"Hmmph," Markus said. There was a brief silence, until there was an odd clack sound as he reached for something. "Just in case you react like normal pokemon do when they hear about humans."

"Easy," Sandslash said. "You've paid your price for a ride. For all I care you could be going to destroy the world. I just want to ask you two questions."

"Ask away," Markus said. "You already know my biggest secret. What will a few more do?" Curious, I nimbly climbed down the rope ladder and peered in the window. Markus had a long, slender, slightly curved object in his hands. There was what appeared to be a handle that lead into a pure white… well, I don't know what it was. It looked like some sort of blunt weapon. I assumed it was what made the clack earlier.

"First question," Sandslash said. "How did you get here?" Markus sighed and reached into a fold between his cloth. He held a box about the size of a deck of cards, though it contained something weird. It was a tube-like thing, wrapped up in white paper with one end being tan. It was maybe a three or four inches long and about a centimeter in diameter. He pulled out a small stick with a little red bulb at the end, and quickly ran it along the wall. It sparked and caught flame. Then he clenched one of the cylinders between his teeth, brought the flaming stick to the end of it until it glowed red, then waved the stick and put out the flame.

"I showed up with these," he said. "Only three packs total. I've almost quit due to the fact that you guys don't make these for yourselves. But moments like this call for another one." He put the cylinder between his left ring and middle finger, pulled it out of his mouth and exhaled a ring of smoke. "I'd teach this world how to make it, but pokemon would ask how I know that." Then he put it back between his teeth. "I got here about three and a half years ago, just like this. I remember going to sleep in the human world then suddenly waking up here. It was out in the middle of nowhere, where I woke up. I don't know how or why but I did. Don't worry, I'm trying to get back just as much as pokemon would want me to leave." I couldn't tell you why, but I had the feeling that Markus wasn't saying everything.

"So you don't know… great," Sandslash sighed. "Second question. Why do you wanna go to the new land?"

"Simple," he said. "I've searched the whole discovered world so far. So when I discovered evidence for a new continent, I had to check it out. See if there's any clues to head back over there."

"That's it?" Markus said. "Potential clues? That's what you're doing this for?"

"If you wanted to go home, you'd follow any clue you'd get, even for the most ridiculous possibilities," Markus said. "It's not like I can start a new life here. A human like me would never blend in. I can barely go out in public even like this without getting skeptical glances. Every day I wish that I was at least born into this world as a pokemon at least, so that I won't get screwed over if my cloth comes loose. Well, I wish that I was never born here in the first place, but that'd be my second wish."

"We accepted you because we were heading that way," Sandslash said. "But what I don't get is why you accepted us. We're heading after Kyogre. So that means that you, Storm Tamer, and at least one of the two navigators, Magnezone and I, have to survive. Preferably your team you hired, too. Was your life as a human really that great?"

"No," Markus said. "It's more that my life here is complete shit." He blew another ring of smoke. "You're the second one who has ever discovered what I am. He had a secret of his own to hide so he agreed to keep quiet. He would've killed me, but-" he looked over to the object he kept in his hand, and I could tell he had a smile under his mask "-he couldn't. Is that all you need to know?"

"That's about it," Sandslash said. "That's about all I wanted to ask." Then he walked away, back into the captain's captain, as if nothing had even happened. The world was still that night. No one so much as stirred. Everything seemed frozen in place. My thoughts were scattering all over the place in the whole spectrum of possibilities. But overall I couldn't think of anything. The thoughts refused to work together so I couldn't piece anything together. All I could do is stupidly climb back up to the crow's nest

I couldn't sleep that night. Hearing about Markus was enough to keep me awake. I wasn't tired either. I couldn't even read anymore of the book I received. All I could do is stare up at the glittering gems in the sky and think about what to do next. I considered going down to him and asking what he knew. But something told me not to. Something told me to never mention it around him. And what a shame, too. He has a human body, so he might have his memories still. He might even remember what happened before he woke up here. But every time a single thought of going to ask him came to mind, that instinct would gnaw at the back of my mind until I stopped. Though it sounds cliche, I had a bad feeling about it.

The sun rose over the horizon, lighting the world and unfreezing the pokemon who lived here. Slowly the earth started to move again as some of the pokemon walked outside and went to work. Rose yawned as the first beam of light shone upon the crow's nest. "Mornin'," she said, obviously tired.

"Apparently it is," I replied, still looking down at the ocean. Again, like last evening, the water started glimmering from the sun.

"I'm too tired to know what that's supposed to mean," she groaned.

"I… I just didn't get much sleep," I said, rubbing my eyes for effect.

"Sorry in case that's because of me," she said, now starting to wake up.

"It's fine." _I should probably tell Rose about Markus. That would be the smart thing to do. Let the one who's been researching this topic for a while now that there's a new source of information that could bring us home. Maybe she could piece together an interview with Markus together with what she knows to get a good answer. Or maybe Markus has an idea already, and that's why we're going to the new land. So for now, sit back and watch everything unfold. And wait for the excitement to happen… somehow I can't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would anymore._

She looked around a little more, examining the area. "Hey, where's Pyro?" she asked. I looked around for myself.

"...Maybe he went below deck because he couldn't find us?" I suggested.

"I doubt he'd sleep in the same room as a bunch of people he barely knew," Rose said. Her eyes widened, holding anger and surprise. "If he ran away, I swear I will cut him next time I see him."

"Worry not," said a voice, shouting up at us from the deck, I peered over the crow's nest to see Pyro standing there, wobbling tiredly. "Sorry I'm late."

"What kept you up this early?" Rose asked, with a small, almost unnoticeable chuckle. I half thought she was implying… _that_.

"I had an old friend to go see," he answered. Rose shot me a look, realizing I was covering for him. "While we were moving up I heard he was moving up that he was somewhere near here, so I decided to take a look."

"Whatever. I'm just glad we didn't have one of those cliche moments where you have to jump onto the ship at the last moment," I said.

"No, but I got something else," Pyro said, reaching into his bag. "Take a look." He threw something up into the air, glimmering in the early morning light as flew upward. Rose caught it between her flowers and stared at it, completely in awe. I peered over her shoulder and got a good look at it myself. It was a beautiful green gem, seemingly glowing in her hands. It was absolutely stunning, as if he had plucked it from the head of a crown. The cut and quality were completely unreal.

"What is this?" she asked.

"I just found it," he said. "I have no use for it, so I thought you might want it."

"Hell yeah," she said, stuffing it into her bag. "Thanks, really."

"Y-you're welcome," he said, not expecting an honest thanks like that.

Almost right after then, Sandslash's door opened. He was fully alert, and his eyes were immediately drawn to Pyro. "You're already up and moving?" he asked. He looked up to us in the crow's nest. "You as well? Well, you'll need to leave there soon. Before we set sail, our usual 'crow' will need to take his seat."

"Got it," I said. Rose got up, grabbed her book she was reading last night, stuffed it into her bag and started climbing down the rope ladder. As per usual, I followed down. My three or four months of memory have had too many ladders... Also out of the room from Sandslash just emerged from came another pokemon, a Magnezone.

"Should I wake up the crew now?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's probably time," Sandslash said.

Magnezone nodded and floated below deck. Almost seconds later a high pitched beep pierced the air. I imagined that this would be what a dog would hear when a dog whistle is blown. _Well, with these ears I'd probably be able to hear a regular dog whistle…_ "Wake up!We take off in ten minutes! Move your sorry asses!"

The crew all groaned, but then jumped to their feet. They knew that if they didn't wake up right then Magnezone would wake them up by force. The lot of them ran up the stairs and back above deck, now standing before Sandslash. "Nine minutes and counting," he said. "You-" he pointed to a group of Monferno "-get the sails ready. You-" he pointed to Machamp and a few Machoke and Vigoroth surrounding him "-get the anchor and the ropes. You-" he moved his eyes to us three now "-sit back and watch." The Monferno all jumped up and climbed the masts, undoing the sails. The large white sheets fluttered downward gracefully and covered the navy blue dawn. A few of the Machoke jumped onto the docks, and to the six ropes that kept the ship tied down. They nimbly moved their fingers and pulled the rope through loops and several knots. Machamp powerfully hoisted up the anchor with all four of his arms, pulling it up several feet at a time. Five or six powerful tugs pulled the forty foot long rope above the deck, and that's when everything came together. The ropes keeping the ship tied to the dock unfolded and the Machamp hurried on board. Then the sails caught the wind and slowly Storm Tamer started moving forward. Sandslash stood in the center of it all, proud like a coach watching his team win a game. "Quick," Sandslash said. "It may not look like it at first but they all work in perfect tandem to get things done."

"And your crew's only been awake for about a minute and a half," Rose said.

"Meanwhile, I've been up for the past day and a half," Pyro yawned. "The hammocks are below deck, right?" Sandslash nodded. "If you need me I'll be there." Then he groggily wobbled below deck.

"It's more than I expected," Rose said. "I'd think that it would take a good ten minutes or so."

"They've practiced a lot," said Magnezone. "We've done a lot of sailing around, and each time we set off I've demanded for them to work even faster. As you can see it's worked pretty well."

"Gallade has a similar method," Rose said. "Strict leadership." She turned to me with a nostalgic smile on her face. "Remember your first day?" Suddenly I was stricken with memories of my first morning there. Pyro waking me up with the flame of his tail, me not catching on to social signals and getting shot in the chest with a blast of air… I could even feel the pain in the center of my chest again.

"Unfortunately I do," I mumbled. I looked over to Markus's cabin. Nothing so much as stirred in there. Just like yesterday when I got here. The world still turns but I was still getting over hearing that Markus was human. He's certainly an interesting person. It's going to pain me not to ask him anything on our way there. Even worse, I can't tell Rose. This is a secret I have to keep.

"So that's it?" I asked. "We can go now?"

"Yeah. Go wherever," Sandslash said. "Now that you emptied the crow's nest-" as if on cue a Swellow flew up to the nest "-I don't care what you do. Read a book. Play a card game. Fuck if I care." I looked behind me, as we slowly left the port. As our horizon expanded the sunrise became more prominent, more beauteous, more colorful. The skies around it were an orange pink, like a bowl of sorbet. But the skies ahead of us were still night, stars not yet completely faded away. It was like I was stuck between the two worlds of night and morning.

"If that's all, I'm just gonna go back to my books," Rose said. While most of the crew shuffled down to below deck, getting some more sleep, Rose leaned against the mast and cracked open one of her books. Pyro was likely asleep by now due to the gentle cradling motion of the ship in the waves. Speaking of sleep, a heavy yawn drifted out of my gaping jowl.

"I think I'm gonna get some sleep myself," I said. Nothing is going to happen for a while, so I may as well. It's not like staying awake will tell me anything new. A stop to sleep, a stop to sleep… I scanned around the deck of the ship. There was little activity on board. At most there was a few pokemon quietly talking about where we were headed. Most of the crew were below deck, getting sleep for themselves. I'd normally be up a little over an hour from now, but considering I never went to sleep last night, I should probably catch up on that. With no other spot available, I leaned against the mast on the opposite side of Rose, and just closed my eyes. The cold morning air, the gentle rocking of the ship, the gentle washing of the waves. Something about the combination of the three lulled me to sleep almost instantly. Maybe because I was no longer thinking about Markus anymore.

…

I couldn't tell where I was. My vision was pure black, but I could feel everything else around me. I was laying at an angle on a somewhat comfortable bed, and a light blanket draped over me that might have been an ordinary sheet. The room I was in smelled pure, clean, like the room was sterilized recently. And all of this was overshadowed by a constant metronomic beep, frequent as the tick of a clock. Between the beeps were gentle breaths from a few different pokemon. Or maybe people. Honestly I couldn't tell in the darkness.

"I can't believe it's been four months," a woman sobbed.

"I know," said a man. "Four months and three days." The two sounded kind and sincere, like husband and wife.

"What're you talking about?" I tried to say. Nothing came out. My lips didn't even move from where they were. "Hey!" I tried to shout, as if it was a one time occurrence. But considering my luck, it wasn't. I couldn't see, I couldn't speak, and I couldn't even move. I was just laying back in bed, my entire body limp and laid back on a semi-comfortable bed.

"When do you think he'll wake up?" she asked. There was a small movement after this, as if she grabbed his coat. This was followed by a few more sobs.

"Soon, hopefully," said the man.

"I'm sorry," said another man. His voice sounded more professional, and combine that with what sounded like leather soled shoes hitting the tile floor. "My boss recommends I give news like this delicately, but demands that I give the news in some way. There is no nice way to put this." The doctor hesitated to say anything further. "We've done some tests, and it looks like your child won't wake up for a long time, if at all." The woman sunk to the floor, hands muffling her crying. The first man seemingly dropped down to the floor next to her, wrapping her in his arms.

"It'll be okay," he said, masking his own sobs. "It'll be okay."

"How the fuck is it going to be okay?!"

"Well, this is somehow cheaper than his normal hospital bills," he said. "There's a light in eve-" the woman slapped him on the cheek.

"Joking or not, never say that again," she seethed.

"Sorry," he said. "Just trying to lighten the situation."

"No, I'm sorry," she said. "You were sorta right. He constantly broke his body to save other kids, and it drained away at our funds."

The man leaned in to his wife's ear, and I could hear him start to whisper something. All I could hear was "Maybe we should pull-" before the world faded away.

…

"Wake up," Rose said, gently shaking me. I jolted awake, terrified and confused. I was heavily panting, and completely confused. What the hell was that? "You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I panted. "Just a weird dream." By far the weirdest I've had. "So why did you wake me up?"

"Dinner time," she said. I looked off into the horizon at the now setting sun. _For such a short dream I was asleep for a while_. "I'd hurry if I were you. Almost everyone has already gotten their soup. There might not be enough for you." Quickly I scrambled up to my feet and sprinted to where the crew had gathered, assuming that to be the kitchen. Many Machoke and Vigoroth were drinking their soup straight out of the bowl. The only one with a spoon was a Crawdaunt with his claw holding a ladle, stirring a huge pot of soup. Two stacks of wooden bowls-one with nine bowls and the other with five-sat by the pot.

"You the last one?" Crawdaunt asked.

"I think so," I responded.

"Good," he sighed in relief. I grabbed a wooden bowl and held it between my paws. It looked as if it was carved by hand with no care for how it looks but only care that it holds soup. I extended it over the pot and he ladled a few scoops of soup into the bowl. "Because there's only a bowl or two left. And if there isn't enough food they would cook me." I laughed for a second, but his expression was utterly serious. "I'm not even kidding. They caught me as a Corphish and were going to cook me for dinner. But I managed to convince them not to eat me if I could make them something from what little scraps of food they had. So now I either cook for them or be cooked for them."

"Really?" I said. That seemed unlike Sandslash.

"Yeah, though the captain had nothing to do with the decision. All he knew is that suddenly we had cook."

"Well then." I'm not sure if that's just a joke he tells to his fellow crew or if it's actually true. I would guess the first one because he just randomly told me without me asking about his story, but even if I were to ask I was almost positive that I would get him insisting that it was true. Plus I didn't really care if it was true or not. "Thanks for the soup," I said, walking away. There were a few lines of tables in the mess hall, and the middle one was filled with Machamp's crowd of Machoke and Vigoroth. I don't know where Machamp started off in this joke but everyone was laughing. A few of them were unable to breath. And even only hearing what seemed to be the end of a joke about how male Gardevoir shouldn't exist managed to get me to crack a smile. From the way everyone else was laughing implied that this was a well thought out story.

Back above deck, most of the non-crew pokemon were chatting. Rose and Pyro were discussing plans for how they would do the job. Pyro kept saying that he would run into the cabin and Rose somewhat surprisingly agreed, saying that if Kyogre uses surf, he'll likely die. Luxio and Floatzel were talking as well, simply discussing how they would take down Kyogre, and how they wished Kirlia would agree to let them join our team for the exploration. And Kirlia himself was standing at the front of the ship, silently staring in front of him and occasionally sipping out of his bowl. With nothing really to do, I walked up next to Kirlia.

"Hey," I said. He didn't so much as move his glance to me.

"What do you want?" he asked coldly.

"Nothing really," I answered, taking a sip from the soup. It was a potato soup, with ham and dill as the main source of flavor. Carrots, peas and corn also floated around in there, and it was absolutely delicious. "If you want to, you can join us on the mission to the new world," I said.

"No can do," he said. "We didn't get to the job before you did. So when we get there, Sandslash is going to drop you off and sail back. He'll be back for you two weeks afterwards."

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean that you can't go with us," I said.

"Like I said, we don't have the job. You do."

"But you can't accompany us on this?"

"Nope." He took another sip. "We have our own job to do. That's all we're here for."

"There's no changing your mind, is there?" I sighed. "Well in case there is, feel free to join us.

I was about to walk away, but he spoke in a cold, serious voice. "Are you putting the scarf to good use?" he asked. It took me a second to realize he was talking about the Scarlet Scarf that was wrapped around my neck.

"Yeah," I hesitantly said. _The hell kind of question is that?_ "It's helped out a lot."

"Good." I couldn't see his face from my angle but I don't think I would have wanted to. I could sense a scowl coming from him.

"Why are you so concerned about the scarf?" I asked. "When I first got it you were pissed that I got it."

"It's important," he said. _I love vague answers_, I thought sarcastically. "And for the life of me I couldn't figure out why he gave it to a rookie like you."

"Do you want the scarf?" I asked.

"Not entirely," he said. He raised his two arms and revealed two blue cuffs. "It's just, I don't get why he gave you the Scarlet Scarf."

"What's so important about it?" I asked. The way he's acting had me intrigued.

"My dad's partner, Bisharp, used it in his adventures," he said. I looked down at the Scarlet Scarf, thinking about how I was wearing something that a famous explorer used in his explorations. To think that this scarf went to the floating island I read about, though only barely. Wherever Gallade and Bisharp have been together, this scarf has been there too. To think of the stories this could tell…

"Woah," I breathed, in complete awe like a child who was just read a bedtime story.

"Yeah," Kirlia said. "But he gave it to you."

"For what it means, I'm sorry," I said.

"No, you're not," Kirlia scowled. "You're overjoyed that you have such a good item and that it was owned by a famous explorer." He was right.

"Look," I sighed. "I just came here to say that you can go with us to the new land. We could use all the help we can get. Just like you could use all the help you could get with Kyogre."

"Shut up," Kirlia spat. "We can handle our job. You should be able to handle yours."

"Jesus, man," I said. "I try to be nice and this is what I get."

"Look, I'm sorry somewhat. It's just…" he sighed, dropping the thought. "Hey, by the way, you keep saying 'Jesus' when you're upset. Where did that come from?"

_Oh shit, yeah. This world has no clue about that stuff. _"I-it's just an expression from where I come from," I said. _Quick, and a half decent excuse_. "It's kinda like when you guys say 'Arceus'."

"Ah." He tried to take another sip of the soup, but the only soup left was the little bit that stuck to the edges. "Well, I'll talk to you later, maybe," he said, walking over to his team.

The next few days were utterly boring. Machamp told more jokes, Pyro kept complaining about water, and I was completely enthralled with the book. The sun rose and set, and I was utterly bored waiting for Kyogre to come.

…

One morning, a few miles ahead of where Storm Tamer would sail to, a Golden Dragonite was swimming at the bottom of the sea. His body was nimbly turning and weaving past pokemon, moving like a serpent. He was able to see only by a line of electricity running between his antennae. It was strong enough to lighten up a small sphere around him but weak enough as to not release a Thunder onto all of the Water-Types nearby. "Where is he?" he asked, darting his eyes around. "He should be around here somewhere." Then he spotted a cave underwater. None of the other pokemon dared to go near there. "Bingo," he said. Then he darted through the water in one fluid motion.

Within the cave, there was a large water type laying there, resting. His breaths created currents that alternated between pushing away and pulling in the Golden Dragonite. But he managed to get close, and then he poked the large pokemon with his tail. "Wake up," he said, his tone colder than the water at the bottom of the sea.

"Hnngh," the large pokemon groaned, waking up. "Who the hell are you?"

"Not important," he said. The Dragonite's antennae sparked furiously then shot a Thunder into the large pokemon. He muffled a groan of pain. "Listen. I need you to do something for me. There's going to be a ship passing by in a few hours, and I need you to attack it."

"Why would I do that?" the large pokemon asked.

"Because." His antennae sparked so furiously that the pokemon could feel it before the attack was even launched. "That attack was barely anything compared to what I can muster. And that will be nothing compared to the strength of who sent me. So unless you want to experience pain so great that you'll wish you're dead, I'd recommend obeying."

"Do you know who you're deaing with?" The large pokemon opened his mouth and shot a Hydro Pump. The Golden Dragonite moved around it and then shot that powerful Thunder into the beast. He screamed in agony, writhing around in the cave and smashing his body into the walls. His screams scared away all the nearby pokemon. Then the pokemon laid there, heavily panting and in pain.

"I fully know who I'm dealing with," the Golden Dragonite said. "But I'm not sure if you know who _you're_ dealing with. Now, am I assuming we have your loyalty. Or we'll have your head on a plate."

"Y-yeah," the pokemon groaned. "B-but why?"

The antennae sparked again. "You don't need to know," he said. "You just need to do." Then the Golden Dragonite swam away, leaving the large pokemon to think about what he'll need to do.

* * *

First of all, before anyone asks, yes, there are such things as Golden pokemon. Dragonite is one of them. Sudowoodo was one, and it was in the anime. But they were an event in the game. I don't know all the facts, but if you google 'Golden Pokemon' you'll find out for yourself.

But anyways, not too much happened this chapter. Not my best work. All I did really was set up the next chapter. But again, as I always say at the end of each chapter, give me a review. Tell me what you think of the story so far... please, I'm begging ya'.


	7. Chapter 7: Goliath of the Sea

Again the sun rose on the horizon. The days all blurred together like the endless oceans surrounding me. I hated this boat with a passion by now. The days were filled with the sun beating down on us like an oven. And the nights were cold like an Ice Beam, due to the lack of things to hold heat. Once before this, Pyro, Rose and I went into a desert for an exploration. We took down a Rhydon who went renegade and stole a bunch of TMs. The climate was almost the same. It would have been entirely the same besides for one thing: I actually had shit to do while I was traveling instead of waiting around.

I still wasn't sleeping well, considering my first night. Every time I would start to drift into sleep I would remember about Markus. Eventually I would fall asleep when my exhaustion made me not care what he is. This morning was no different, waking up in a sudden jolt when a ray of sun shined in my eyes. Pyro prefered to sleep inside so he slept below deck with the rest of the crew, which was a little surprising from him. Rose and I slept above deck against the mast. Most of what I did was read that book, which I was completely enticed with. I was secretly hoping that Gallade let Gardevoir write down more of Team Excalibur's adventures.

Sandslash came out of the captain's quarters, followed by Magnezone. The Steel-Type went below deck and woke up the crew, as long as Pyro. Team Camelot woke up soon afterwards. Everyone was awake and moving. But everything was still dull and boring.

The distant horizon ahead of us held a storm above the seas. The clouds were violent and dark, as if waiting for us to be within its wrath. The ocean below it was torn up and thrashing about with waves that formed in walls of water that slammed down into the seas.

"Should we take a detour?" Magnezone asked.

"No," Sandslash said with a grin. "Our prize has the ability Drizzle, remember? That's the first storm we've found so it's worth a look."

"Understood," Magnezone said. He floated down below deck and to the rest of the crew. "Listen up!" he shouted, silencing the pokemon. "We're hitting our first storm in about an hour. If you remember that means that we have a chance to find Kyogre. So, load up everything you have. The cannons, the nets, everything. If anything is left undone we could all die here. You brats may be incompetent but I'd trust that you'd rather live than be lazy. When Kyogre strikes, you either have to prove you're a man and fight, or get out of the way and hide below deck. Understand?"

"Yes sir!" the crew responded in one simultaneous shout.

"Good. Again, we'll pass into the storm in about an hour," Magnezone repeated. "Unless you feel like dying, get your asses moving!"

"Yes sir!" they shouted again. Immediately the crew broke into movement, moving items into place. Cannon balls next to cannons, harpoons next to the harpoon launcher, and a mixture of both in a small quiver-like container strapped around Machamp.

"You ready?" Rose asked, stretching her arms.

"Nope," I sighed. Rose raised an eyebrow. "Kirlia said that this is his job and we shouldn't interfere."

"And you're going to listen to him?" Rose scoffed.

"Yeah." I tried to turn away from the storm, thinking that it was mocking me with an adventure I couldn't touch, but I couldn't entirely turn away. It was always in my peripheral vision. "I'd love to help, but it would hurt his pride."

"And he's the type of man that would protect his pride over his heart," Pyro said, walking up to us. He was the opposite from me. He tried as hard as he could to keep the storm out of his sight, and whenever it did cross his vision the flame on his tail would flicker and shrink. "Personally I'm fine with not helping."

"I'm not," said Rose. "Why do we have to sit back and watch them have the fun?"

"Arceus, you sound like Riley," Pyro muttered. "Again, it's because of his pride."

"It's better his pride than his head," Rose said.

"I'm not entirely sure," I mumbled. "I'd think that he's the type of man who'd value his pride over his life."

"I'm not going to convince you otherwise, am I?" Rose said. Both of us shook our heads. "Great," she sighed. "So I have to sit back and watch them go?"

"Yup," Pyro said. "I got Floatzel and Luxio to agree that we can go in their cabin while they work."

"And what did they say about us helping out?" Rose asked.

"They personally didn't care either way if we helped," Pyro answered. "But they said no because they knew Kirlia wouldn't want us to help. Said the same thing as us, that his pride wouldn't let him get help."

"Whatever," Rose sighed. She picked up one of her books and made her way towards Kirlia's cabin. Pyro was close behind, eager to be away from the water. I just kept staring ahead at the storm. _Kyogre could be in there. The god of the seas only an hour away, and I get to watch watch pokemon try to fight it… no, I don't 'get' to, I'm forced to. Forced to sit back and watch out the window how shit is going. This isn't fair._

About half an hour had passed and I just stood there, unmoving. The same thoughts kept cycling through my head, and the same words kept cycling out of the crew's mouths. They were either scared, excited, or a mixture of both. Machamp kept practically shouting how he's gonna throw a harpoon right through Kyogre's heart. Magnezone was checking on the cannons and nets. And Sandslash stood nearby, gazing into the storm. He said nothing, just like me. I was leaning against the banister, paw on my face and a dead stare forward,

seeing what excitement I couldn't participate. Sandslash however… his look intimidated me slightly. His eyes were practically on fire, holding flames fueled by pure excitement. He had a grin across his face like a thief in front of an open bank vault.

"I feel bad for ya'," Sandslash said. "If it were up to me, I'd let you help. Though I'm the client, it's his job." I said nothing. "You know, I've been waiting a long time to take him down." We were now close enough to the storm to feel the wind on our faces. "This is my third try."

It took a second for what he just said to register. "Mhmm… wait, what?" A proud smile grew on his face. "You hunted him down twice before?"

"Yup," Sandslash said. "My first time was when I was a young Sandshrew. I was with my good friend, Magnezone-who was a Magnemite at the time-, on a sailboat. At the time I didn't like going out to sea, being a Ground-Type and all. But Kyogre appeared in a sudden storm." He took a deep breath and felt the wind on his face. "It was a lot like this one. Of course I wasn't able to do anything. He smashed our boat, and Magnemite caught me and carried me back. The next time I saw him was a few years ago when I took Storm Tamer out there, inspired to find him. It didn't work, of course. Storm Tamer almost broke, but we managed to escape. But now-" he stared into the choppy waters "-this time I'm going to drag him back behind the ship when we leave."

"Woah," I whispered. "Do you know how lucky you are? To survive encountering the pokemon that rules over the seas? Twice, no less?!"

"Lucky? Maybe. But I consider it more angering," he said. "Twice I've found him and I didn't manage to put more than a scratch on him."

"But you-"

"Captain," Magnezone said.

"Yes?" Sandslash said.

"As you can see, the storm is getting closer, faster than we calculated," Magnezone said. "So it's moving." Even though he didn't have a mouth, I could tell that he was smiling. "In about five or ten minutes, he'll be upon us."

"Fantastic," Sandslash grinned. He took a step towards his crew, then stood there proudly, carrying himself as if he stood taller than the others on his crew. "Listen up!" he ordered. The crew silenced all at once and looked before their captain. "In just a few minutes, Kyogre's gonna be here. He knows we're here." The crew started to chatter in small amounts of fear and hesitation, with the exception of Machamp, of course, but all stopped when Magnezone started sparking. "Don't you bitch out on me now. You knew what you were signing up for. Have every cannon and harpoon attended. If you twats don't do your job, we'll sink to the bottom of the sea. Now, get to-"

He was interrupted just as he was about to finish his speech by a piercing roar, the quake from which even shook the waves. Immediately the crew was unsettled. Following this roar, the storm then hovered above us. The rain started dropping onto the deck of the ships, and the winds were so intense that you'd think that a Tornadus was behind this. Sandslash started to grin. "So damn impatient," he laughed. "To your stations!" The uneasy crew scrambled below deck to the cannons. "And you, into Kirlia's room," Sandslash said. With a sigh I walked over there. On my way in, Kirlia came walking out, having that dutiful look in his eyes. FLoatzel and Luxio came out immediately afterwards, the Water-Type looking as if he had readied to die and the Electric-Type with a look in his eye like he would throw a Thunderbolt into Kyogre the moment he got a chance. None of them said so much as a word to me, or anyone really. They stood beside Sandslash and stared into the waters. With a heavy sigh I walked inside and closed the door. As I thought, Pyro sat in the chair farthest from the window, and Rose in a comfortable looking recliner, like the one Markus sat in while he was in his room. And Markus was in his room, pretending nothing was happening.

"At least we get front row seats," I said, slumping into one of the chairs and peering out the window.

Again the mighty legendary roared, and the world seemed to stand still. The waves stopped rocking the Storm Tamer, the winds stopped flickering the flag, time was at a stand still. The calm before battle.

(Now in 3rd person)

Time then started moving forward when a large pokemon burst through the surface. It was large Kyogre, larger than they normally would be. A normal one would be about fifteen feet long, but this one must triple that. Most of the crew looked at it with complete, utter terror, as if they were looking into the face of the reaper. To them, they were. Luxio and Floatzel had a brief glimmer of hesitation but quickly turned into the same look their leader Kirlia had: duty. That they had to do this, that failure was not an option. Kyogre landed down in the water near the Storm Tamer and sent hundreds of gallons of water spraying in all directions and dousing almost everyone out on the ship with water.

"Fire the cannons!" Sandslash ordered. The Monferno and Quilava below deck all used Ember to light the cannons. They hissed as the flame grew and made its way down the rope and into the cannon. In perfect rhythm, one right after the other, a volley of cannonballs fired into the air with a bang. The massive Kyogre was too large to evade the attack but also too large to feel this more than Machamp would feel a pebble. They bounced off the Kyogre and plopped down into the stormy seas. "Shit," Sandslash muttered, fearing that he now just made the Kyogre even more angry.

"Floatzel," Kirlia said, "into the waters."

"Got it," Floatzel said, already running towards the banister. He put a hand on the edge and jumped over and into the choppy waters. Like this he would be able to track Kyogre down underwater, and help anyone that goes overboard.

"I was hoping to save these for later, but I might as we," Sandslash muttered. "Fire the harpoons!" The crew above deck all hustled to aim the harpoons at Kyogre. For such a large pokemon he moved nimbly around, crashing through mighty walls of water. When the harpoons were relatively on target, they shot forward in a silent lurch, rope trailing behind them. All but two missed their target. The first made but a scratch as Kyogre realized what was heading towards him and turned to the side, but this made the second one hit with ease and stab in a few good feet. The beast whailed in pain as it pulled against the harpoon. Sandslash was practically cackling when his crew was winding up the rope, pulling the beast closer and closer. Kyogre thrashed about in the waves, churning up the seas even more and pushing Floatzel against the side of Storm Tamer.

"You moron," Kirlia spat. He swung his left arm out and sent a Magical Leaf to cut the rope. Magnezone blocked the attack and sparked furiously as a warning. "You're bringing that flailing beast towards Storm Tamer. That thing'll break the ship."

"I'm merely making sure it can't escape," Sandslash said. "I've hunted him before. I know what he can do to ships. If you ever cut this rope I'm going to get that harpoon back, and plunge it through _you_."

"This isn't the time to be making threats," Luxio said. "You have a more powerful enemy over there." He pointed his tail towards Kyogre, who was now on the offensive and charging through the waves towards the ship. Luxio fired a Thunderbolt, and though it seemed to do damage Kyogre wasn't stopping.

"You're right," Magnezone said, shooting a matching Thunderbolt, and to the same effect as Luxio's: next to nothing. "Captain, diversion tactic B."

"Got it," Sandslash said. He reached into a large bag by his side and pulled out several large, pointy Iron Thorns. He hopped onto Magnezone's head, and the Steel-Type soared off into the air. "Oi, ya' blubbery bastard!" Sandslash screamed, throwing Iron Thorns towards the beast. They did little more than scratch his scales from this range, but it did get his attention. Kyogre stopped moving and turned it's head towards the two. In a quick breath-like motion, Kyogre gathered water into his mouth and shot a Hydro Pump towards the two. Magnezone narrowly dodged it, feeling the spray hit his face. "Well? What're you doing?!" Sandslash shouted to his crew, still not turning an eye towards them. "If you want to survive I'd recommend not just standing there with your thumbs up your asses." The crew moved into gear and started shooting more cannonballs and more harpoons, careful as to not hit their captain. Machamp stood on the side of the deck and threw cannonballs with his bare hands faster than the cannons could. Kyogre released a muffled groan whenever he was hit, and the waves would shatter and break into pieces whenever he missed.

Kyogre shot another Hydro Pump at Sandslash, annoyed and treating them like a fly buzzing around his head. Magnezone this time darted out of the way, though only barely. His right magnet was hit by the powerful surge of water, spinning him faster than a Rapid Spin. Sandslash was holding on by the large golden antennae. "Easy," Sandslash said, barely staying on his feet.

"I'm sorry," Magnezone said, a small hint of pain in his voice. "His Hydro Pump is incredibly strong."

"Just don't throw me off into the ocean," Sandslash said. "Ground-Types don't fair well in water."

"Yeah, but I think we have a bigger problem," Magnezone said. As if on cue, another Hydro Pump shot by.

Luxio kept shooting Thunderbolts at Kyogre, trying his best to keep the legendary at bay. Of course it did nothing more than irritate the both of them. Kirlia walked up dutifully and shot a flurry of Magical Leaves at Kyogre, and again it did very little. Slowly they were realizing the beast they were taking on.

"Fire everything!" Sandslash screamed. Again the Fire-Types lit the cannons with an Ember and shot a volley of cannonballs towards Kyogre. The harpoons all shot forward, and the one that had already stabbed into him was reeled the beast in. Kyogre whailed in pain as it struggled against the harpoon in its side, until he made a realization. Kyogre roared and started diving down below the rough waves.

"Shit," Kirlia muttered. "Cut the rope!"

"Why would we-" Sandslash stopped himself the moment he realized what was happening, but by then it was a moment too late. Storm Tamer was was being pulled along with Kyogre. The boat was tilted sideways as the beast dragged it along. Crew fell into the ocean, and many were not seen again. Floatzel would have gone to save them but he was busy pushing against the side of the boat with a powerful Aqua Jet, doing whatever he could to slow them down. Magnezone dropped Sandslash as the boat passed underneath them.

Sandslash was slowly moving towards the harpoons. At the angle the ship was at, walking was nearly impossible. He had to dig in his claws to move even an inch forward. Magnezone had no grip whatsoever and went flying back. Sandslash clenched his teeth and marched forward, trying his best not to join the crewmembers that had fallen. In one leap forward, Sandslash's claws cut through the rope. Storm Tamer came to a screeching hault, tilting in the other direction and sending more crew mates into the stormy seas. Sandslash was amongst these people and was catapulted into the air like a spiky cannonball.

"Shit!" he shouted. "Magnezone!" The Steel-Type turned towards his captain, instinctively running towards him without even checking to see what he called him for. Sandslash almost never called for him. But the one time he did, Magnezone was too late. Sandslash was sent crashing into the large raging beast ahead of him. His thorns jabbed into Kyogre, sticking him in there. He froze, contemplating the situation he was in. Then the pain set in for the great beast. He thrashed about, smashing his tail and breaking the raging waves. Sandslash tried his best to hang on for the ride, doing what little he could do to stay attached and avoid joining his crewmembers who sank to the bottom of the sea. "Fucking hell," he sighed, acting casual. The beast dove under the seas for a brief moment, hoping to shake him off. To no avail. Sandslash just laid there, annoying the King of the Seas.

Kirlia sighed as well, equally annoyed. He flicked one hand into the air. His blue cuffs glowed a turquoise blue for a moment, then that glow flooded into Kirlia's eyes. Sandslash was gripped in his Psychic, slowly pried out of Kyogre's skin. The Psychic-Type was struggling to lift against such a powerful beast, but he knew he couldn't let his client get hurt. He grunted and groaned as he pulled with all his might, now holding both hands up in the air to get whatever help he could. He shook Sandslash in hopes that would give him more room to squeeze out, and finay, he did. He popped out like a cork from a bottle of champagne. Kirlia then dropped to one knee, muttering to himself how he shouldn't have gone all out like that. Magnezone came flying towards his captain to catch him, overjoyed. But the joy was short lived.

Kyogre was now getting serious. With an ear splitting roar, he flailed his tail in the waves. A massive wall water rose from the storm. Everyone stood still, gawking at their eminent deaths. The huge tower kept growing bigger and bigger, and the sense of dread grew alongside it.

"Everyone!" Sandslash yelled, thinking quickly. "To the lifelines!" The crew, which was now about 30 people, roughly a third of what it once was, all sprinted towards the main mast. There were a hundred of ropes tied to the mast, one for each of the crew who were originally here. But now most of them unused, a reminder for the sacrifices made. Just for this one goal. The goal of a Ground-Type who just wants to defy his typing and take to the seas, and to dethrone the King of the Seas. And who found people who would join him in his quest, fully aware of the dangers. Almost everyone had gathered around the mast for safety. All but Kirlia, who just stood there, panting heavily.

"What're you doing?" Luxio asked.

"If you remember, we need to keep Sandslash safe," Kirlia answered. "A massive Surf like this would turn the ship over... So I'm gonna catch it."

"What?!" seemingly the whole crew shouted in unison.

"That's fucking insane!" Luxio shouted. "Your Psychic can't hold all the water!"

"No, but I can redirect it," he said. Luxio was about to speak again, but the massive wall of water had started to crash down. The blue cuffs around Kirlia's wrists glowed even brighter, practically a blue flame in his hands. Then the flame transferred into his eyes yet again, making them an ominous blue bowl of power. He rose both of his hands up towards the massive flood of water. When it reached a certain point it made a cone like design, pointing to Kirlia. The pressure increase, and it evolved into a Hydro Pump pressing through about a roughly foot long hole. Kirlia simply stood there, groaning as he pressed the water to one singular stream, into a stronger attack for himself to take. His Psychic was acting like the barrel of a cannon for the incoming attack. But he stood there, trying harder and harder as the force grew nearer and nearer. Time had slowed down in his eyes. Most of the crew turned around, refusing to watch what would happen. Luxio didn't avert his eyes. They were glued to his friend, sharing that same slow motion with him. Floatzel couldn't see what was going on from down there, but he was glad that he couldn't. He didn't want to see what would go on with his friend, but he knew.

Then time came back to its normal speed and the water shot into Kirlia. The massive surge was pressed into a nearly deadly force that sent Kirlia flying back. His lifeline was the only thing that kept him from flying into the raging seas. "Oh shit," Luxio said. "This… _this_ is the power of a legend…"

Sandslash however was in a different mood. He turned towards Machamp with a passion in his eyes. "Get Kirlia back here and awake!" he ordered. "If we want to survive another surf, we'll need him!"

"Yessir!" Machamp boomed. He put two hands on his rope and started pulling the Psychic-Type in, several feet at a time. But the great beast wouldn't wait for them. Kyogre roared an ear-splitting roar. A wave formed in front of him and grew taller and taller, practically reaching into the clouds.

"Shit," Sandslash muttered. "Everyone! Below deck!" The remains of the crew started running for the hatch below deck. Everyone besides Luxio, who was struggling to pull in Kirlia with his teeth. He was suffering serious rope burn, but he would endure it for the sake of recovering his friend. Then the wave started crashing down. No one could do anything to stop it. Luxio realized this. He realized how powerless he was in this moment. He wondered why there were idiots who had even considered taking on this legend before. He wondered why he even agreed to take this on. He wondered why he underestimated this behemoth. And he wondered if he was going to to die here. Luxio let go of Kirlia's rope and glared at the wave with a snarl. His fur started to spark furiously as the wave drew nearer and nearer. Then he released a mighty Thunderbolt with all his might with a booming roar… and his efforts were all put to a stop when that surf crashed into him, filling his mouth with salt water and sending him flying. He knocked into Kirlia as his rope pulled him back in. And just before he lost consciousness, he turned towards the glass window where Team Hell Raisers contained themselves and uttered one single word: "Help."

(Back in 1st person)

My jowl was gaping open at the spectacle I had just witnessed. My mind couldn't form full thoughts. Every instinct I had told me to jump out of my chair and to help them, to damn Kirlia's pride and to let him live for pride worth fighting for. But my mind told me that I shouldn't. That I should just wait. Rose, however, didn't share this feeling.

"Fuck his pride," she said. And with that, she threw open the door and ran into action.

"Rose!" I shouted, reaching for her. I stood in the doorway, watching her run farther and farther out. _Damn it_, I thought. _Doesn't she know what she's doing?_

"Close the door!" Pyro shouted, looking terrified at the small splashes of water that came in the room. I gritted my teeth and glared at him.

Rose put a hand on Luxio's lifeline and a hand on Kirlia's and began slowly dragging them both back in. "Damn it," she muttered. "If he had asked for help then we wouldn't be in this mess." She slid forward when the ship started to rock again. She turned to me and shouted: "Well?! You just gonna stand there, or you going to do what you've been whining about for the past week?!" I gritted my teeth yet again. Seeing the strength of this legend made me reconsider what had to be done here. This beast is in a whole new league that I'm not even close to. What can I hope to accomplish? Pull Kirlia and Luxio on board so they don't down earlier than the rest of us? But Rose… why is she fighting right now? Why is she trying so hard to live when death is certain? "And here I thought you had somethin' in you," she said. "Turns out you can't even _try_ to save yourself." When she uttered those words, I felt something snap. Literally. Part of the rope near the mast had started to break.

_Shit_, I thought. And that was the last thought before instinct took over. My feet started running on their own towards the mast, kicking up sprays of salt water as they went. Rose smiled proudly and started to pull the two closer. But the smile faded when the rope snapped and Rose was dragged into the air with Kirlia. "Shit!" I screamed. _I can't let her die! I can't let her die! _In a blur, I sped forward with a Quick Attack, gripping the torn rope with both paws. I pulled as hard as I could, feet against the railing and back on the floor. _Damn it_. _Damn it damn it damn it, I can't let her die on me!_

Again, Kyogre wasn't one to wait. He rammed into the Storm Tamer, and I lost my balance and slid even more so between the railings. One paw held me to a banister, though only barely. The other placed the rope between my teeth and gripped another banister. I struggled to pull myself forward even the slightest bit. _Damn it damn it damn it_, I thought. _I can't die here. I _won't _die here_.

:"Pyro!" I shouted. He was holding himself in his shelter, the room that could be torn open and exposed if Kyogre so wished. He was trembling against the door, not daring to move. But he took in every word I told him, eyes widened as he considered the dilemma before him: _what do I do?_

"You just gonna fucking sit there?" I shouted. He said nothing. Did nothing. Thought nothing. Rose was struggling to advance along the rope. Every time she would get a good foot she'd slide back two more.

"Let us die because you're too scared to put your life at risk?" There was an empty silence filled only by the wind and waves. Pyro sat back, switching back and forth between helping and living.

"And here I thought you were a Hell Raiser," Rose groaned, pulling herself towards me. "But you don't even have the courage to save two friends in danger."

And with those words, a switch inside him was flicked. He thought about seeing his two friends die because he was scared. Because he wouldn't risk his life to save them. Pyro clenched his claws tightly together. His mental battle was over, his courage scaring away his cowardice with a growl. That growl turned into a roar fueled by anger pointed at himself. The flame on the end of his tail burned brighter and brighter, glowing more and more… until Pyro himself began to glow. A soft white light came about him, engulfing him, wrapping around him. His tail extended and arms grew longer, more effective. His fangs were sharper in a now more prominent jowl, and all this was topped a small spike put on the back of his head. The light faded away, revealing a darker, brick-like color that were where his once orange scales were before. But he paid no mind to his new state. For now it wasn't his upgrade; it was his tool to help his friends.

He stormed out the door and into action. He paid no mind to the rain beating down on him, or the beast thrashing about in the distance, inexplicably giving us time. "He evolved," I whispered, looking at him in awe. Rose smiled proudly as Pyro ran towards me, pulling me back on board.

"Thanks," he said. He didn't answer. He gripped Luxio's lifeline and started tugging the Electric-Type forward as he dangled over the edge of the ship. I then gripped the rope I held between my teeth and pulled Kirlia and Rose in. It was a slow process, made unsettling by Kyogre lurking in the background, inexplicably giving us time to recover... But why? Is he being merciful? Is he toying with us? Maybe he's recovering?

My thoughts were interrupted when Sandslash and the remains of the crew came bursting from below deck, hoisting several boxes of cannonballs and harpoons. "This cocky chunk of blubber messed with the wrong crew," Sandslash said. He waved his hand forward and the remains of the crew scrambled to the cannons, loading the cannonballs in, the three Monfernos running along with a Flame Wheel to light the fuses, the angry hissing as the flame moved down the wick, the boom of the cannons and the iron shooting forward in a large volley, hitting the legend like the rain from the fierce storm. And the process repeated, over and over, and Kyogre was in severe pain... But why? He could easily use another Surf and wipe us all out. None of this was making any sense. but neither was standing back here and doing next to nothing.

When Rose was pulled back onto the main deck, she was panting and terrified. "Thanks," she said, her voice trembling.

"Finish the job and pull in Kirlia," I replied. "Since he's out, I doubt he'll object to me helping." I peered over the edge and into the water, scanning, scanning, looking for someone. And plunging out of the water, Floatzel used Aqua Jet to soar back onto the deck of the ship, carrying a Vigoroth on his shoulders. He was about to go back in, back to get another of the seventy who failed to stay aboard, but I grabbed his arm.

"What're you-" he stopped when he looked at the anger-fueled burning purpose in my eyes.

"Take me out to Kyogre," I said. An idea was starting to form.

"There are about six dozen pokemon drowning out there, and I need-"

"You can either save about three or four of them or help me keep these three dozen from joining them," I spat.

"Damn it," he said. He looked to Kirlia and Luxio, seeing that his friends came so close to death. He couldn't let it happen again. "Come on, let's go." He pulled me on to his back. "Hang on," he said, and in a moment he was propelled forward with an Aqua Jet, weaving in and out of the cannonfire. I held on tightly at first, like a kid afraid that he'd slide off the carousel. But I wouldn't be able to do much from down there. Slowly and gradually my arms pushed me up to my knees, then from there I stood completely up. It took everything I had to stay standing, back paws holding onto Floatzel's fur and leaning forward to counteract the wind. I started to feel hesitant as we drew nearer to Kyogre, realizing that I was about to approach a legend. The King of the Seas, the Moby Dick of this universe, the myth that I'm trying to defeat. _Don't falter, don't falter, don't falter_.

Floatzel reached a point where he was about a stone's throw away. "Thanks for the ride," I said. Then I jumped forward, Floatzel turned around to see to the rest of the crew, and I realized that I had not a single clue what I'm going to do. _Quick, something. Something, something, something to do, a weakpoint to hit. A large thick-skinned pokemon like this won't be affected by physical attacks. And, being a Fighting-Type, physical attacks are all that my arsenal contains. Think, think, damn it think. How do I get past that thick skin? Getting eaten is not only cliche but it's ineffective. Getting back out would be damn near impossible. Think, think, think_. My eyes scanned the beast, time seeming to slow down again. They first moved to his eyes, then to his forehead, his nose, his underbelly, the red patterns on his back, the scar where Sandslash stuck into him, the harpoons sticking out of his skin, the-... _Bingo_.

I slammed into the side of the beast with an almost belly flop. But I didn't even get that moment of rest. Almost immediately Kyogre dove beneath the sea. I was sent tumbling out in the current he created behind him, barely managing to grasp onto his tail. Being swung up and down and up and down as he went deeper and deeper and the pressure grew greater and greater and the water grew colder and colder. But I wasn't about to lose after coming this far. I put another hand on the tail fin with a grunt. I inched my way forward, being shaken by the movements of his tail. _Not. Going. To lose_, I thought with each arm forward. Kyogre wasn't diving down to the sea for the hell of it. He made a sudden U-turn and started rocketing back to the surface of the water. I only just realized that he was charging for the Storm Tamer. I gasped, only to realize how stupid that is to do underwater.

_Hurry, hurry_, I thought, climbing faster and faster. _Just to the first harpoon. That's all I need to get to_. As he grew closer to the surface of the water, the pressure pushing me down grew smaller and smaller and I climbed faster and faster, drawing nearer and nearer to the steel, barbed spear in Kyogre's side. And when it was within my reach I grabbed it in one fluid motion and pulled it back. Kyogre roared in pain and averted from his original course by the sudden surge of agony. I grinned, then pulled myself closer, causing even more pain. Kyogre burst out of the water and arched in the air, giving off a defeated moan. But I had too much adrenalin in me. I wouldn't listen. In that brief few seconds that I was above water, I stood up. My hand surged with power as I held it above my head, like a warrior holding his sword before his victim . Lightning thundered in the distance, slowly starting to strike nearer and nearer.

"That's enough," said a voice. But before I could turn to see who said this, a Thunder struck me. My body jittered around as electricity ravaged me. My thoughts were all gone. My fur singed. And as I was fading unconscious, I saw a golden pokemon floating just under the clouds, a stream of sparks between its antennae.

* * *

Oh my god, I am _so_ sorry that it took this long for this chapter to be sent in. A lot of personal stuff happened to me in the past month and it was hard to get time to work on this. But with some help from some friends I managed. And I apologize for the 'meh' quality of this chapter. Even though it was a work in progress for the past 1.5 months, I was rushing to get it finished. I didn't want to disappoint you readers and leave this unfinished. This may not be much for you guys but for me... this is a lot for me.

Sorry for getting heavy on you guys. Anyways, my usual end-of-chapter wrapping up thingy. I would love a follow or favorite, but it would absolutely make my day if you give me a review of what you think of my story so far. And if you don't, thanks anyways for at least reading this far.


	8. Chapter 8: Heading Home

"Riley!" Rose screamed. She ran over to the edge of the ship with Pyro right behind her. She would've dove in to get me, but saw Floatzel under the waters of this slowly calming storm.

"I would have never expected Kyogre to fail in killing you," said the golden pokemon. Slowly he came down from the clouds, revealing that he was a Dragonite. "You can't find good help these days, can't you?" he sighed. Sandslash growled ferociously, reached into a small bag by his hip, pulled out two Iron Thorns and hurled them towards Dragon-Type. The first one grazed his scales and the second missed by a mile.

"How _fucking_ dare you?!" Sandslash screamed, moving his eyes back and forth between the Dragonite and the Kyogre who was hit with the same Thunder as I. "_I_ was supposed to beat him. _I_ was supposed to dethrone him!" For a moment it seemed as if tears were forming in his eyes.

"Captain, should I take him out?" Magnezone asked.

"No," he said, calming himself down. "Let this mother_fucker_ speak."

"Thank you," the Dragonite said. It was at this point when Floatzel grabbed my body and Jetted back to the deck of the Storm Tamer, then dove back in to save more of the crew. "I could give you the long story and tell you why I'm here, but that's all too long and boring. The short version is 'Turn around or sink to the bottom of the ocean', though I'm almost certain that won't suffice. Am I correct?" Sandslash nodded, grabbing a bundle of Iron Thorns. The Dragonite sighed. "It would be so much easier to kill them," he mumbled.

"_Someone_, who will remain nameless, told me to stop you from reaching this new land," the Dragonite said. "I had expected Kyogre to manage the job, but you… Even using the harpoons to your advantage I didn't expect such a legend to fall… well, nearly fall. Either way, props to the Riolu laying out cold."

"Is that all?" Sandslash asked, a hint of anger in his tone.

"Well besides motives, which I wouldn't say anyways, yeah, that's about it," the Dragonite said.

"So you're telling me that, for some bullshit I don't even care about, you took my opportunity to defeat Kyogre from me?!" Sandslash boomed.

"Easy," said the Dragonite. "I didn't want to harm you guys, despite the Riolu over there, but violence was encouraged."

"Is Kyogre alive?" Sandslash asked, a dead seriousness overshadowing him.

"He should be, yes," the Dragonite answered.

"Then you're forgiven," Sandslash said as he turned around. "I'll come back and fight him later. I'm not the one with the problem."

"Oh? Then who is?" the Dragonite asked with a slight laugh.

Markus's door slammed open, knocking over a picture in his room. _It's him_, I thought, barely conscious now. _What's he doing?_ "That would be me," Markus said. He held that mysterious metal object in his hands from a few days ago. The one with the pure white, sharp edge, with a scabbard with elegant golden patterns. "I have a few problems, actually. One: why is this 'someone' trying to stop us from going to this new land?"

"Because reasons," the Dragonite said. "If I told you, you'd want to go even more."

"Interesting," Markus said. I could sense a grin under his cloth. There was a faint smile on Dragonite as well. "Second problem: after paying all this money, I'm not going to turn back." He unsheathed the item he held in his hands and held it there. "At least not without a fight."

"It's been a long time since I've seen a sword like that," the Dragonite said. "If you think you can fight an aerial Pokemon like that, you can try."

"Hold it," Magnezone said, floating between the two. "Storm Tamer's taken enough damage. And apparently we need her to go all the way back."

"You have Water-Types, you have Life Boats. You can go home if need be," Markus said. "I'll fuckin' swim there if I need to."

"A courageous spirit," said the Dragonite. "Just the kinda thing he would want me to silence." His golden scales started to shimmer as the clouds started to break apart. "But it would be such a waste."

"Third problem," Markus said. As he said this he readied himself into an odd battle stance, holding the scabbard as if it were a weapon. "What makes you think you can stop me?!" Then he pounced into the air in a blur in one, fluid movement, faster than I could see. He smashed the scabbard into the Dragon-Type's stomach, catching him off guard. His eyes widened and he leaned forward, silenced. Then Markus kicked off his head and landed on Magnezone.

"Hey!" Magnezone shouted. He whirled around a few times and tilted to both sides to shake Markus off, but he stood there, still like a toy figure on display. "Get. Off. Me."

"A lot stronger than I thought you would've been," the Dragonite said. "But interesting, too." Markus raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you use the actual sword?"

"That's-" Markus started. But he stopped when he realized that he didn't know.

The Dragonite snickered eerily. "You don't know, do you?" Markus glared at him. "Turn around while you still can," the Dragonite said.

"Fuck that," Markus said. Rose nodded in agreement.

Dragonite started scanning the remains of the crew, from Machamp to the Machoke to the Vigoroth, to the Monferno, then to Kirlia, then to Rose and I, then to Pyro, where his eyes stuck. "Perfect," he said. Then, in that same blur that Markus made, he was upon Pyro, looming over him with a grin on his face. In that same moment he wrapped his tail around Pyro's neck. He gurgled as he grasped at his tail with his claws desperately to get away.

Rose had tried to grab onto him but the Dragonite flew up a good ten feet, out of the grasp of the other pokemon. "Now, turn around back to the mainland," the Dragonite said, dangling Pyro over the water. He tried as hard as he could to speak, to scream out as he curled his tail away from the seas. "It's either that, or I'll drop this guy." Hearing that made him squirm to get free as he was choked.

"G-guys… h-help," he managed to say.

"Damn it," Rose mumbled. Markus grumbled as he thought about the dilemma he faced. "Just turn around!" she screamed at him. "It's not worth it, whatever's over there." _That's right, I forgot to tell her about Markus. Maybe I should tell her_. Then another sharp pain came into my head, canceling that idea when a paw came to comfort me. _Fuck this hurts_.

"It might be," Markus mumbled. "But… but it isn't worth it." Markus sheathed the weird item he held in his hands with a scowl on his face. "For now I'll leave," he said, hopping off of Magnezone's head. Slowly he walked back to his room, opened the door and glared at the Dragonite. "But I'll be back." And with that he slammed the door, secluding himself in his dark room.

"Just the kind of words my master would hate to hear," the Dragonite said. "But I'm not aloud to do anything." Then he flung Pyro back onto the deck with a thud.

"Pyro!" Rose shouted, running over to him. He was gasping for air and backing away from the Dragon-Type.

"I knew coming here was a bad idea," he said between breaths. "Knew I'd either almost die or actually die."

"But at least you evolved," Rose said. Pyro seemed surprised at this, then looked down at his brick-red scales.

"Oh, I did," he said, stupefied. "The one upside to this journey, and I didn't even know when it happened."

"Hey, you guys need to leave now," the Dragonite said. "You're talking and all and that's nice, but I can't go home until you do."

"Right," said Sandslash. By now, thanks to the help of Floatzel and some of the other few Water-Types, most of the crew had returned, except for a good dozen and had anticipated what Sandslash would have said and started moving towards the sails. "Turn around a-hundred-n'-eighty degrees! We're going home!"

"W-wait," I said, slowly sitting up. I barely knew I was conscious until now. "A-after all th-this work, all this laying around…" My voice was raspy and dry, like a desert wanderer.

"Riley, take it easy," Rose said, trying to gently push me to my back again. I grabbed her hand and pushed it away. Gritting my teeth, I stood up. My body was aching, and I could feel aftershocks of the Thunder surge through my body.

"After all these pokemon lost… we're just gonna go home?" I panted. This little bit of work managed to exhaust me.

"Ooh, I like your spirit," said the Dragonite. "If you were anyone else I would test that spirit. But alas, orders say I cannot." A grin came across his face as his eyes darted to Kirlia. Flames spilled out of the corners of his mouth. "But I can test _his_ spirit."

"No!" I shouted. I tried to move forward, but I was without strength and collapsed onto my knee. The Dragonite laughed.

"You'll end up being fun later on," he said. "But for now… well, follow the captain's orders."

The crew had gone back to work, shifting the sails, changing the rudder, a whole bunch of nautical stuff I didn't understand. Most of them were silent, aside from some upset grumbling. There was an odd tension in the air as Dragonite floated their ominously.

"Damn it," I groaned, slamming my limp fist on the deck. "All this work, all this waiting…" _And whatever Markus wanted to see in the new land… all of it, gone_.

"I know," said Rose with a sigh of disappointment. "I was looking forward to it, too." _You have no idea_.

...

The Storm Tamer slowly sailed away from the Dragonite, but it wouldn't move away fast enough. The Golden Dragonite floated in place, staring at us all with a grin. No malice or kindness was hidden behind that grin. But I returned a similar stare back to him. Despite that I took a Thunder from him and that he almost killed Pyro, I saw that he did this because he was told to, and I even had a feeling that he was told to kill us if needed. But he didn't… something about him puzzled me for days to come. And the main question I had was 'who was his master, and why did he want to stop us from going to the new land?'.

And as we sailed away, I could feel an aura start to emanate from Markus's room. It was a mixture of rage and sadness, and it was accompanied by muffled groans and occasional objects thrown about, the smashing of glass and the thud of something hitting the wood. _I need to talk to him later_, I thought. _Now that we're not going right now, I think that I won't do any harm by asking… But Rose..._.

After another hour the Dragonite was out of sight, but I could still sense him floating in place, same grin on his face. It was as if he was still looming over us, flames spilling out of his mouth and sparks flying between his antennae. And after that hour I had recovered enough to move about.

"Rose," I said, grabbing her attention from one of her books. "I need to tell you something."

"Oh God," she sighed. "That's usually what someone says before something dramatic comes up." She braced herself for the wildest of possibilities. "Alright, what is it?"

I leaned in close to her ear and put a paw next to my jowl so no sound would leak out. "Don't overreact when I tell you this, but… Markus is a human." She jumped up a little bit, bumping the back of her head on the wall. Her expression stayed the same but it it was obvious that she was containing an energy.

"...A-and for how long have you known this?" she asked.

I shrugged. "For a while. And to answer your next question, I didn't tell you because I wanted to see what he would do on his own. I thought that you would've ran and asked Markus about being a human and everything, and I didn't know what that would mean for his plans."

"...I swear to Christ I will hit you if you ever withhold information like that to me again," she said. I smiled and rubbed the back of my head. "Jesus, I can't believe it." A broad smile came across her face. "Another lead on going back home. Can you believe it?"

"Barely," I said. We both watched as Pyro slowly adapted to his new body. The Monfernos convinced him to do it the hard way and somehow managed to drag him up to the masts. He was balancing himself as he walked along the beams with the encouragement of the other Fire-Types.

"He's certainly changed now that he's evolved," Rose said.

"Yeah," I said. I was watching intently, watching him move foot after foot and adapting to the new balance of his body, waiting for that one slip up. But he made it across the whole way and back. The Monfernos all held their arms up in victory. Pyro smiled wide, then looked down to us.

"Did you _see_ that?" he shouted, though from up there it sounded like a distant cry. Rose started clapping her flowers together (again, how?).

"I wonder how he's gonna take it?" I said quietly.

"Hmm?"

"Well, I don't think that a pokemon would fare well in the human world," I continued. "I mean, I'm doing decent, but that's because this world is pretty fun. The human world was pretty boring… I think."

"Very boring," Rose said. "So boring that we thought of all sorts of different realities to escape."

"Thank you," I said. _Making me want to return home more and more_, I thought sarcastically. "So I'd doubt he'd wanna come with us. And that's assuming that he would turn into a human too, and _that's_ assuming that he can even go into the human world at all." Markus threw another object in his room, seeming to nearly break the wall. "That reminds me," I said, slowly standing up. "I should probably talk to him about everything." Rose followed quickly behind, remembering that she wanted answers.

When I opened the door his book was thrown directly above my head, flying out into the ocean. "Goddam it," he muttered, seemingly not noticing us. "All that fucking research, all that fucking work." He turned to us. "And I hired you guys because I thought a group of people would more easily cover a larger area than just one person. But no, you guys have to fuck everything up."

"Wait, what?" I said.

"All the work I put in for this, and it was stopped to save your stupid friend."

"it's not like you can't sail back when it's all done," Rose said.

"You don't understand," he shouted, throwing something else. "Considering the caliber of enemy trying to stop me from going, I might not be able to after this. Against one of them I could have taken him on. But there'll be more of them now. More and fucking more. Jesus…"

"You remember the job you hired us for, right? For us to explore the new land with you?" I asked. "Well unless I'm mistaken the job hasn't been complete."

"Yeah, well I'm canceling-"

"Don't," said Rose. "We know what you are." Markus was still for a second.

"Fucking hell," he said, reaching for that same object he used against the Dragonite. "Most people don't take kindly to me when they know."

"Relax, we're not going to do anything," I said.

"I've heard that before," Markus spat. "So why did you decide to come here and tell me that you know?"

I didn't tell him the real answer, and I didn't know why. Maybe it was because I subconsciously knew what would happen. Or maybe it was because I just didn't want to reveal that I was a human, too. Rose apparently thought the same thing I had thought and kept quiet about being human.

"Because," I said. _Quick, think of something_. "I just wanted to know why you wanted to go the new land."

"I just wanna go home," Markus. He gestured for us to come in as he slumped into his chair. I walked in soon after and Rose came after me, closing the door behind her. "I've been here for years, searching everywhere for some glimpse at a way home. Barely being able to go out in public without fear of being caught, and when you have to you feel their eyes on you as they wonder what pokemon you are… Sorry for monologuing on you, it's just…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of those small, narrow paper cylinders from before, holding it between his teeth. "You say you're still gonna help me, eh?"

Rose and I nodded.

Markus chuckled. "I'm not sure if your friend'll still help me though." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stick, capped with a red bulb. He struck this bulb against the wall and it caught on fire. Rose and I jumped back, and Markus laughed again. "It's called a match," he said, bringing it to the tip of the cylinder. "And this thing is called a cigarette." With those words, puffs of smoke shot out of his nose. "I'd assume you came here to ask something, but before that, tell me how the fuck you know what I am?"

"I… I overheard you and Sandslash on the first night on the boat," I said.

"And you've only told me about three minutes ago?" Rose scowled, hitting me with one of her flower hands.

"I won't do that again," I said.

"Alright," Markus chuckled. "Ask away."

"First, what do you know about going to the human world?" Rose asked.

"Jack shit," Markus answered. "I can tell you where it's not, if that means anything."

"Secondly," Rose said, "what do you remember about being human?"

"Jack shit," Markus said again. "Unless you count my name, that is." _But that makes no sense. Rose has been here for almost two years and she's pieced together some information. But from what I heard from Sandslash he's been here three or more years._ From what I could tell Rose was thinking something similar.

"That's all I need to know," Rose said. "Thanks for the answers." She quickly turned away and walked out of the room.

"Well? Aren't you gonna go with her?" Markus asked.

I shook my head. "I want to make sure you don't up and leave after this," I said. "The new continent is an opportunity I wanna be a part of."

"You and about everyone else out there," Markus scoffed. "But if you want to, sure. Just sail there and get killed by the Dragonite."

"So you're just gonna give up?" I asked.

"No," Markus said, puffing out another cloud of smoke. "No, no. I'll find another way there. It'll take time, though."

"Research? Exploration? That's all you'll need to do, right?" I asked. Markus nodded. "It'd go faster if I helped you out."

"If you know what to look out for, then I guess you can help," Markus sighed. "Every once in a while I'll send a messenger of some sort to a your guild in search of you. Will that get you to leave me alone?"

"Yeah," I said simply.

"Good. Now go away," he sighed. With a smile on my face I walked away, closing the door behind me. I had the feeling from him that this cold exterior was nothing but that: a cold exterior. Those few times in that conversations when he laughed revealed that warmer side to him.

The days were even more boring now. Nothing happened, just like before, but except now instead of looking forward to exploration we were waiting to return home, failure looming over us. The sun rose and set and nothing fun happened. Everyone was utterly depressed, none more so than Kirlia. He had failed his mission, his one quest that he had sworn to do. Even worse, I had succeeded. He was enraged towards me, nearly wanting to kill me. He stayed in his room to avoid doing so.

…

That night, the Dragonite continued to float there, scanning the horizon for us. We were miles away, of course, but he was told to wait there until night. With a yawn he turned around and flew away. It took him about an hour to reach the new continent. He was laughing to himself that the Storm Tamer had come so far only to turn back when they were this close.

On the edge of a cliffside that dropped into the ocean, there was an Alakazam hovering in place, reading four different books by torchlight. The Dragonite flew over to the Psychic-Type, his golden scales shimmering in the light.

"You're back," said Alakazam, not peering away from his books.

"Mission successful," said Dragonite. "I doubt they'll return soon."

"I just hope that you weren't too successful," Alakazam said. "Remember that we need them to come eventually."

"I know, I know," Dragonite sighed. "Let's just go back now."

Alakazam sighed, closed his books with Psychic and put a hand on Dragonite. Then he used Teleport and the two were engulfed in a violet light. Then they were gone, leaving the new continent.

…

It was morning, just before sunrise, Sandslash stood on the bow of the ship, one hand against the Gyarados figurehead. I myself had just woken up, cold air nipping underneath my fur. Following Sandslash's gaze showed me a small light on the horizon. After a little more looking I saw the faint silhouette of hills and mountains.

"Is that land?" I asked after a while.

"Hmm?" said Sandslash, not expecting to see me there. "Yeah. We have maybe an hour or two until we land."

"Oh, thank God," I said with a sigh of relief. I had been at sea so long that I just might kiss the sturdy ground when I get there. "The walk back to the guild will be a long one, though."

"Don't worry 'bout it," Sandslash said. "You, your team and Team Camelot all worked pretty hard, and I thought that I should at least give you something." I raised an eyebrow, too tired to comprehend. Sandslash smiled. "You'll see when you get to the mainland."

"Tell me," I demanded.

"I'll just say that I got you a ride," Sandslash said. I sighed, realizing that I'm not getting a better answer than that for now.

I walked up next to Sandslash, watching as we slowly drew closer to the mainland. The sun slowly rose over the distant hills, giving the water that bright glimmer as it reflected the faded blue sky.

Everyone had woken up about half an hour later, and the crew was all waiting to get back on board. Kirlia stayed in his room still, Luxio and Floatzel waited on board, joining me in the stare, Pyro was practically on the edge of the banister, waiting for his first opportunity to get back onto land. And Rose stood next to me. Everyone was getting extremely impatient to feel the soil beneath their feet.

The moment the Storm Tamer bumped into the docks, Pyro leapt onto the town floor and did what I sarcastically thought about doing: kissing the floor.

Rose and I laughed and jumped after him. I stretched my arms and back, taking a deep breath. "And now we gotta take a two to three day walk back," Rose sighed.

"Nope," I said. "Sandslash said he got us a ride back, though I don't know what it is."

Rose turned up to Sandslash, who was overseeing his crew climb down the rope ladder that we didn't use due to our impatience. "Thanks for the ride, whatever it is," Rose said to him. Sandslash rose a hand as a way of saying 'don't mention it', not looking her in the eyes.

Pyro rose from kissing the ground-for far to long-and looked over to us, hearing parts of the conversation. "So where's our ride home?" he asked.

"They'll be here soon," Sandslash said, watching the last of his crew drop down the ladder. As if on cue there was a distant, muffled boom somewhere far off. Sandslash grinned. "Speak of the devil." He looked into the sky with a glimmer in his eyes that practically and illogically forced us to follow his look. And at the end of his look were two figures flying towards him at incredible speeds. Before I even knew it the two were right in front of the ship, floating in place. I recognized what pokemon they were instantly: Latios and Latias.

"Yo," said Sandslash, hopping off the banister and right in front of them.

"Hey," the two pokemon said in unison.

"So how was your attempt at dethroning Kyogre?" Latias asked.

"Unsuccessful," Sandslash said. Latios's and Latias's faces sank. "Unexpected complications came up. I'll try again in a month or two."

"That sucks," Latios said. "Need our help?"

"You keep asking and I keep saying 'no'," Sandslash said. "Not gonna be any different this time."

"Then why did you make a call for us?" Latios asked. _How the hell did he make a call from out in the ocean? _"Got me excited, thinking that I'd be able to help you out for once."

"Well you two're heading to Gallade's guild for a quick little stop, right?" Sandslash asked. The two pokemon nodded. "Well, some of the guild members helped me out a lot, and were the reason we returned home. Team Camelot won't accept their reward because they weren't the ones to take him down, and Team Hell Raisers-" he pointed to the three of us, and we awkwardly waved "-, though coming on a different mission, were a huge help too, but refused the reward as well, saying that it wasn't their job in the first place."

"Let me guess where you're going with this," Latias sighed. "You want us to take them back with us on the way there, right?" A surge of excitement swam through me, thinking about being able to ride home at the speed of sound.

"Don't forget, you owe me," Sandslash said. "I'm trying to be nice here in case I need their help again."

Latios turned his head a small amount, just enough to see me and my team. His eyes went to Pyro to Rose to me-where I jumped slightly-then to the Scarlet Scarf wrapped comfortably around my neck. He stared for a few seconds, inspecting every fold from where he looked. I had a feeling that he could tell that I had that ancient quest to explore the Mountain of Myths folded up in there. Then he turned back to Sandslash.

"I'll do it," Latios said.

"Really?" Latias said with a laugh. "You _do_ realize that you'll be going at like a sixth of your normal speed, right? And you'll be carrying like two or three pokemon on your back."

"I know," Latios said.

"Actually, Team Camelot wouldn't take a ride home," Sandslash said. Immediately I knew that it was Kirlia's decision.

"A lighter load to carry, then," Latias said, relieved. "Yeah, I'll do it, too."

"Good," Sandslash said. "Now be on your way. I have my own shit to do." Sandslash turned away and started walking into town. Magnezone floated onto the docks, nodded to Latios and Latias and they nodded back, and followed his captain.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Latios said.

Latias dropped onto the ground so that someone could hide on her back. "Hop on," Latias said. Rose shrugged and climbed onto her back. Pyro quickly scrambled onto Latias, sitting behind Rose.

Latios gave me a hard look to describe. It seemed cold, but I got a message from it as if it were telling me, _go ahead. Do it. I dare you_. "Well? Go ahead," Latios said.

With a little hesitation I walked forward, expecting Latios to take off just before I would touch his wing. That feeling gnawed at the back of my mind as I placed a paw on his back, then jumping on his back. Out of instinct I put an arm around his neck like a kid riding a horse for the first time. Latios smiled and I almost instantly knew what was next.

Latios sped off in an almost instantaneous rush forward. I was almost pulled back by this sudden lurch forward, saved by that grip around his neck that I tightened to save myself.

"Wait up!" Latias shouted, speeding after her brother. She chased after her but the larger pokemon she carried slowed her down. Latios slowly widened the gap between them, tucking his arms in and straightening his body out. I knew I wasn't going to like this.


	9. Chapter 9: Markus's Travels

Markus slung a small cloth bag over his shoulder and opened the door to his room. The sudden sunlight made him put a hand over his eyes. As he left he saw Latias chasing after her brother, leaving a sonic boom in her wake. He turned to Sandslash as the Ground-Type walked next to his First Mate, turning into town for more supplies. Last he had heard they would sail again in a month. Markus wouldn't be joining them for this. If he were to join them again it wouldn't be for a while.

He draped an old, ragged cloak over his back and tucked his sword under said cloak. Then, nothing visible besides his haunting green eyes, he hopped off the ship, turned to the Gyarados head to give it one last look, muttered "See ya' later" and turned north. He walked with a sense of purpose, directly forward and staring at his next destination beyond the horizon.

He was in a hurry to leave town. He could feel eyes staring at him, and practically hear their accusations for what he is. He could hear their collective thoughts softly at first, like a distant whisper:

_Human_.

Then it was louder and more collective. He could see a few heads turn to him with blank eyes. Their mouths all silently stated:

_Human!_

He turned away from them all, but there were seemingly more pokemon, more sets of eyes, more mouths, more voices, more accusations. _Human!_

They all said. Then Markus was surrounded with a sea of pokemon, all staring at him and shouting at him.

_Human! Human! Human!_

Their harmonious chant filled the air. Markus covered his ears, trying to get the sound out of his head. Seemingly it got louder to him, mocking him, trapping him.

_HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN!_

Markus opened his eyes and saw all the pokemon in their places, not paying him the time of day. It took him a second to realize that he had realized what he thought was a delusion. _Not again_, he thought, regaining his senses. _I can't let this crap get in my way. If I do it would make that nightmare a reality._

Markus pretended as if nothing happened and walked along. He walked to the edge of the homes, seeing a young Buizel peer out of the window. He looked at Markus curiously, trying to figure out what the cloth covered figure was underneath. Before the young Water-Type could figure anything out, his mother pulled him away from the window. Markus could faintly hear "Sweetie, don't stare" coming from the Floatzel.

Relief flooded over him when he was outside of town, but he didn't stop. He had a lot of searching to get done. And now he had other people who were going to help him out. He wondered why he even accepted help from them. Why, why. It was a good question. In his life back home asking for help would end badly, and he had already done it once. A second time might be the end of him. But something deep within him told him to accept their help. His instincts were screaming for him to forget about them-no wait, find and kill them. They know his secret. But his heart told him no. His heart told him to leave them to help, that they can be trusted.

And so he walked. Over the distant hills, through the forests, ignoring both the pokemon driven mad by the dungeons and the ones who were kept sane. He remembered playing the games back home. Getting his copy of Pokemon Red Rescue Team. His friend got Blue Rescue Team on the DS and wouldn't stop showing off the two screens. The game was enjoyable on both platforms, and he loved it. It made him think about everywhere he's ever been. Every emerald forest, or dark, mysterious cave, or those tall, mighty mountains. He'd pretend he dove into the pokemon world and fought off imaginary pokemon with a stick and 'Hyper Beams'. But that was when Markus was filled with that childish sense of wonder. When he awoke back in this world, he was in so much disbelief he thought he was in a dream. But that dream was shattered when someone saw him. When someone saw a human.

Markus was glad when he saw his destination as he rose over the top of another hill. He had been reliving that memory for the past hour, hearing screams in his head and feeling regret flow through him. But he threw it behind him and kept walking. Letting such petty things slow him down would be a disgrace.

The hill dropped into a valley, tall grass turned golden in the sunset. Sticking out of the grass was a small but intricate stone structure. It was the size of a small house, maybe eight or nine feet tall inside, but the outside had ancient, mystical carvings on it. A group of simply-carved pokemon were etched into the outside walls. They were Flying-Types, he presumed. He could make out some Dragonites and Flygons, maybe a Pidgeot, but the rest were so vaguely designed that they were unrecognizable. But still, Markus enjoyed the design of it. They seemed to be moving around, swirling and flying along the walls in a graceful yet natural way. There were windows at each wall, and a wide, open doorway at the front. A couple of Rattata scampered out when Markus walked in. He took in the smell through the cloth. It had that fresh feel to it, but the stone hut gave it a certain atmosphere to it. But as much as he loved it, he hadn't come all this way just for this scent.

On the back wall there was a piece of paper taped right next to a carving of Zekrom. On the other side of the window there was a carving of Reshiram facing Zekrom. Whenever Markus was in the area this would be where he would rest. He'd fall asleep marveling at all the art on the walls. He would do the same for tonight as well, but he wouldn't be able to if that piece of paper was next to Zekrom. He unfolded the tanned, dirtied paper and read it. It read the following:

_I don't know when you'd be reading this, but I put this here in early March. Remember that little village we dismissed a while ago? It was due west a week's travel from the Mountain of Myths._

Markus thought for a second, searching around for said village in his mental map. He scanned around for a second until he had it pinned. "Oh yeah," he muttered to himself.

_Well, I had no leads to go on so I checked it out. And it turns out that they had a legend about a human turning into a pokemon._

Markus's eyes widened. He kept reading with increased interest.

_I read through the whole thing a few times, dissecting each detail. And some of the parts sounded very familiar. It says that a man was brought over in human form to the pokemon world with no memory of how it happened. And the man stumbled around for a long time, looking for a way home. And after a few years, he came into the village. The village elder knew how to send him home somehow. He needed three items. The first one was given at the village, and he was sent in the direction of the other two. When he found them, he had to go to a mysterious land no one had ever been sent to._

Markus's eyes turned east, in the direction of the new continent. He knew he was just getting his hopes up to follow a legend, but it was the best lead he had right now.

_And after finding all the items and getting somewhere, he headed somewhere. The legend says he headed east from the village. I don't know where exactly but I have my suspicions. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking 'oh damn, another legend about humans coming into the pokemon world. I've been down this path before'. But don't. You don't understand. The village I went to had one of the items in it. It had the Green Garb. There's a chance this might be the real deal. I asked the elder what the other two items were, but he didn't know. I don't know what I'm looking for here, but I've been looking for the past while. You could probably find a copy of the legend in some sort of library somewhere, and I'd recommend doing that so you can find out little details for yourself._

_Hope you find something_

_-Festuum_

Festuum was a nickname Markus's partner went by. If either of them got caught it would be problematic. It was hard enough to choose secluded places to hide the notes and writing in a foreign language that most, if not all, pokemon wouldn't be able to read. But in case someone came along who could, they used their own language.

Markus grinned and folded the piece of paper into his pocket. He couldn't believe he had a lead after so long. The last lead had been about six months ago, and they reached a dead end a month later. The two had been blindly following any lead for the past few years. This wasn't their most promising lead yet, but it was their only one.

He slumped against the wall, tired. He knew he'd need to sleep tonight to rest but he couldn't. He hadn't been this excited since he was a young child waiting for Christmas morning. He could distinctly remember all those nights when he'd be tossing and turning as he tried desperately to get those few minutes of sleep, hoping he could do so before 'Santa' came by. And he felt the same now; body demanding sleep but mind too restless to actually drift off into the land of dreams. He kept thinking of what he would do in the morning. Head to the library or head to the village? The library would likely have the legend, but the village definitely does, and probably has a lot more. The village is far away though, and-

He halted his thoughts in their place and took in the night. He peered out the window at the open sky, stars shining like sparks on the dark skin of the universe. He looked thoughtfully into each one. And as he did his thoughts died down somewhat. The only one left was "I wonder how he's doing?" as he slowly fell asleep.

…

The next morning Markus jolted up at the first ray of sunlight. Those few Rattatas from yesterday evening came back in, and Markus shooed them away. They scurried out and left Markus alone in the small stone hut. He stretched his arms and slowly stood up, pulling out an apple for his breakfast. He took a bite out of it, a bead of juice forming at the corner of his mouth. He finished it rather quickly and threw the core out the open window.

He was about to leave, but he remembered something. He hadn't written back Festuum yet. He took out a piece of paper, held it against a smooth part of the wall, took out a pencil he had made himself in this world, and wrote the following:

_It's early April when I'm writing this. My quest to the New Continent was a failure. The ship I took a ride on went out that far to take on Kyogre. Thanks to a small team of explorers we managed to take it down, but then the Golden Dragonite was able to overpower the weakened crew. For the life of me I don't know why he didn't kill me, or why I didn't kill him. But he threatened for us to go home, so we did. But out of this, I learned that the continent was there. Why else would he send me away?_

_Now, something that might be concerning to the matter. Two of the team members I hired to help me and the captain of the ship I hired to take me… they know what I am. I didn't kill Sandslash at first because I needed him to take me there, but after we were sent back and those kids told me they knew, I don't know why I didn't kill them. I don't know about Sandslash, but I do know that the kids said they'd help. I'll be sending occasional messages to them, and all they ask is that they get to come with us to the new continent._

_That's about all that happened on my end of things. I'll check out the legend and see if I can't dig anything up about the other two items. And it's been a while since we've met in person, and communicating through letters doesn't convey the same message as it would in person. Sometime in June I'll be back here if nothing comes up. Before that, I'll be around Treasure Town, maybe around the village you were talking about. _

_Hopefully I'll see you then_

_-Markus_

Markus put a piece of tape on the back of the paper and taped it to the smooth part of the wall. He read over it a few times, making sure his recently-woken self was awake enough to make sense. Then he nodded, as if being the editor to his own paper, and walked out of the small stone hut.

He walked for two straight days to the southeast, stopping at a small little resting spot. Avoiding dungeons carefully and moving quickly, he managed to reach his destination a day ahead of schedule. Somewhere, not marked on any map, there was a lake with waters so blue it's like a second sky. Around the blue lake there is a cabin built from a nearby forest. It held a certain charm to it, simple though it may be. In the back were rows of Oran Trees and Pecha Trees, and maybe a few Cheri Trees if Markus could remember correctly. And in the front was a Kangaskhan sweeping the porch like she did most afternoons, her pouch completely empty. Markus strolled around the lake, waiting for her to see him. She did when he was a stone's throw from the steps, and she smiled a motherly smile.

"It's only been four months," she said. "What, you weren't willing to wait a whole year like you usually would?"

"Good to see you, too," Markus smirked, walking up the steps. The clack of his shoes hitting the wooden steps were like music to him. "Who's staying here now? Anyone I know?"

"Well, we have a Weavile and a Honchkrow laying low here for now," Kangaskhan said, peering in the window. Weavile was looking back at them while Honchkrow lay in bed, a cool wet cloth on his forehead and panting heavily. "Poor Honchkrow was carried in by Weavile, both poisoned and on the brink of fainting. If they didn't know about this place they would've died."

"It's a good thing, what you do here," Markus said. Kangaskhan helped criminal pokemon hide out for a while out of the kindness of her heart. She looked at wanted posters and saw not a vile, destructive monster, but instead someone who had to do something to scrape by in the world.

"Oh, and before you ask, yes, uh-" she snapped her fingers a few times as she searched around for that name "-Festuum, that's what you call him. Yeah, he was here a few weeks ago. Had a weird green thing he was wearing. I can't really describe it, but he wouldn't tell me why he wore it."

"Did he say where he was heading?" Markus asked.

"He said he was heading Northeast, but nowhere precise," she said, leaning the broom against the side of the house. "Personally I think he's heading for the area around the Ancient Jungle. He just didn't want to worry me."

"Idiot," Markus sighed. "Water-Types don't work well in jungles."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Kangaskhan said, hurriedly opening the door. "Where are my manors? Go on, head inside." Markus smiled warmly under his cloth wrap and walked inside. The Weavile glared at him out of the corner of her eye, making sure he wouldn't go anywhere near her sick partner.

"Relax," Markus said. "What would I gain from killing 'im?"

Weavile remailed silent, staring daggers into Markus.

Markus shook his head and walked into the back, grabbing a few Oran Berries in the kitchen as he did. He went out the back door, shoving half of an Oran Berry between two straps of cloth. A young Cubone was chasing around an even younger Caterpie through the berry trees, both of which laughing like the children they were.

"You can't catch me!" the Caterpie shouted.

"Watch me!' the Cubone countered.

Seeing the two play their game reminded Markus of him as a kid. He remembered playing tag with his brother in the forest, and that eventually evolving into a more fierce game. One would chase the other around the house, holding some sort of basic weapon-a book, a pen, once it was an orange-until the other could find something to counter the weapon, and the other would chase the former chaser. Their dad said they were like gladiators in a colosseum. But Markus just thought of it like one of those old cartoons, where one guy would pull out a gun, and the other would pull out a bigger gun, and so on and so forth. He had a nostalgic smile on his face as he leaned on the railing and watched the two kids play.

"We got Caterpie a few months ago," said Kangaskhan, walking up behind Markus. For a large pokemon like her she is quite stealthy. "I don't know what happened. Maybe the mother died, maybe she abandoned him. Either way, Cubone found him all alone, so we took him in."

Markus smiled again. Even though this place was a criminal hideout, it never seemed that way. Kangaskhan's place always had an aura of home about it, rivaled only by one's own mother. She wouldn't turn down anyone in need, and that's what Markus loved about her. She reminded him of his own mother in many ways.

"How long do you think you're gonna stay for?" Kangaskhan asked.

"Not long," Markus said. "I'll leave by tomorrow morning. Sorry I can't stay longer, I just have things to do."

"Trying to go to home still?" she sighed. "Yeah, I get it. You have a mother of your own to see." She was quietly staring at the two play their game, silent for a few moments. "So, what lead are you boys following now?" she asked.

"The slightest one," Markus answered. "Another old legend that we're only following because there's a chance it could be more than a legend."

"You kids," she sighed. "I ever tell you that this used to be a resting spot for explorers?" Markus shook his head. "Well, it was. Pokemon used to make detours to stop by."

"Why did you stop?" Markus asked.

She smiled mischievously. "That'll be a story you'll hear when you visit me. _Next year_."

Markus smiled and shook his head. "Hopefully I won't be here then," he said.

"Well, don't I feel special," she snickered. Markus said nothing. "Say, why do you still have that cloth wrap on you? This is a place of safety. There's no need to hide."

"I've had it on for the last several years," he said. "It's gotten to the point where even _I_ forgot what I look like."

"Oh my, take it off then," she said. "Go up to the roof or something. Arceus."

"Nah, I'm good," Markus answered.

"Kids these days," she sighed. Markus resisted the urge to say that he's likely older than her.

He shoved the rest of the Oran Berry in his mouth and walked back inside. Weavile had been peering at them, peeking her head out from behind a wall, and upon seeing Markus turn around, scampered back to her spot next to Honchkrow.

Markus shed off his cloak, dropped his bag next to the bed and leaned his sword up against the wall right near him. Then he collapsed onto the bed. It had been a long time since he had been in this bed. When he first found this place, he had a suspicion that he had imagined this place. The beds were just as comfortable as his ones back home. It was uncanny to him at first, how much this reminded him of home. And it still was. The only difference now is that he embraced it.

Before he knew it Markus had fallen asleep. He didn't mean to, the mattress was too comfortable for his own good and he slowly drifted away. He didn't dream for those short hours he was asleep. It was almost like a time warp for him, waking up after the sun retreated beyond the horizon.

And while he was asleep, the room filled with the pale light of the moon, Weavile got curious. Her steps were quiet, little more than a light tap on the wood. She was careful to not make a single sound and to move slowly. Weavile loomed over the sleeping Markus, hesitation in her eyes. _Should I…?_ she thought, slowly moving her claws towards his cloth mask. Carefully she grabbed one of the strips of cloth and moved it up, revealing a pale face and lips. She was almost brave enough to strip the rest of the cloth and confirm her suspicions, but a faint groan from Markus scared it away.

"Hnnn," he groaned. Weavile pulled her hand back as Markus slowly opened his eyes, and ran back to her post beside Honchkrow as they settled on her. It took him a second to realize what happened, and he scrambled out of bed and fixed the cloth wrapping on his face. He stared at Weavile, and she stared back. Neither knew what the other would do. Markus reached for his sword. Weavile held up her claws. They were silent for several minutes.

"You know?" Markus said at last.

Weavile nodded.

"So what now?" he asked.

"I won't tell," she said quietly. "I'd be turning myself in if I did."

"Good," he said.

He wasn't able to sleep for the rest of the night.

Morning came and Markus was more tired than ever. The sun rose, ending the staring contest between Weavile and Markus.

"Morning you guys," said Kangaskhan, walking in with a new wet cloth for Honchkrow. He was doing better, but he wasn't entirely up to code. His fever had died down but he couldn't get out of bed.

"Mornin'," Markus said.

"So, you're heading out today, right?" Kangaskhan asked.

Markus nodded.

"It's a shame. It's been so long and we only talk for a few minutes," she sighed.

"You run basically an inn," he said. "Usually the manager doesn't talk with the guests."

"This isn't an inn," she said, slightly irritated. "It's a second home for everyone to come back to."

"Whatever," Markus sighed. He slung his bag over his shoulder, draped his cloak over him and went for the door.

"Come back soon," Kangaskhan said.

"I will," Markus said, closing the door behind him.

They both knew it was a lie.

…

A week after Markus arrived at the port, he reached the nearest town. It was small and simple, focused along a river that ran right through the middle. There were quite a few Water-Types swimming along the current. And as he walked he could feel their eyes on him.

_Human_.

_No_, he thought. _Relax. Don't let them get in your way_. He continued to walk, ignoring the glances he got from other pokemon.

At the end of town there was a small library ran by a Gothitelle. Markus slipped in while she was reading a book. He was sure she saw him but neither really cared. The whole library was empty besides for Markus, Gothitelle and a Grovyle reading in the back. The only sounds were the occasional flip of a page, and his footsteps as he searched for his book. He looked through several legends, skimming over what they said, and stopping when they started going in a different direction than what Festuum described. He read through them for several hours, and he couldn't find what he was looking for. That is, until the last one.

Markus's eyes were glued to phrase: _but he would need the help of three items_. He read over those nine words a number of times, making sure that this wasn't just his mind giving him what he wants. Then he traced over that phrase with his cloth covered finger to double check if it was real. And much to his benefit, it was. He slammed the book closed and held it to his chest. He looked to his left, then to his right, then walked to the front desk.

He quietly placed the book on the counter with a few coins on top. Gothitelle looked to the coins, then to Markus, then back to the coins then back to Markus.

"You _do_ realize that books are free as long as you give them back, right?" she said.

"Yeah," Markus said quietly. "I just want to keep this off paper. You know, not keep a record of this."

_That's not suspicious_, Gothitelle thought. She shrugged, swiped the coins off the cover and put them in a bag. "It's due back in a month," she said.

"Thanks," Markus said, tucking the book in his arm. He turned around and walked outside. He had been there so long that it was night now. He looked up at the stars, staring into every one with a glimmer of wonder in his eyes. He took a deep breath of the night air and reluctantly moved his eyes off the stars.

The small town was lit by faint torchlight, for the zero pokemon who were up at this hour. He was surprised that they didn't close up Library before it had gotten so late. Regardless, Markus walked on. He didn't know where he'd sleep tonight, nor did he care honestly. He'd find somewhere to sleep with his privacy.

As he walked, he saw a wall littered with wanted posters. He had encountered quite a few of the pokemon behind the posters, so normally he wouldn't pay them any mind. But there was one he saw out of the corner of his eyes that made him stop. A young Riolu with a red scarf around his neck was glaring at the camera, seeming ready to destroy it. And below it read in big black letters:

**WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE**

**RILEY, THE RIOLU**


End file.
